A Pawn's Path
by Random Odd Guy
Summary: What would happen if Naruto gave up on his dream of becoming Hokage? There's only so much failure one can take before changing, for better or worse. This is my first attempt at publishing any of the multiple stories I tried to write at some point so do not expect pairing plans as of publication. Criticism is welcome. Rated M to be safe; profanity and gore are possible.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hello to any whom might be reading this; I know not when I will be able to update and so on, something I thought I should post right from the get go before people pm me or whatever should anyone even deem my material to be worthy of doing so.

I've had this concept of sorts in my mind for a good while now, although previous attempts at pulling it off failed miserably, as I had, surely enough, found myself dealing with several detrimental issues regarding story-writing. Rest assured, I will still be unable to prevent the mistakes I committed in the past, although it has probably been used in other contexts, as I am not a very creative person.

Disclaimer#1: The following contains violence, coarse language and adult situations not suitable for minors. Your discretion is advised.

Disclaimer#2: The following story more than likely contains cliché bullshit often associated with Naruto fanfiction. Thou hast been warned.

Disclaimer#3: The franchise Naruto and its inherent elements belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I do not own any of it nor am I making any money out of this poor excuse of an attempt at writing.

Chapter I

Being ignored often damages one's psyche; humans are a social species and even the most antisocial specimens need a semblance of communication and positive rapport. Without it, an isolated individual's mind is bound to head towards a dangerous area not known by many men.

Uzumaki Naruto, aged 12, used to be a perfect example of how far a human being could go to attain the aforementioned communication/rapport. As far as he could remember, people either treated him with disdain or behaved as if he didn't exist, something that had led him to creating a façade of sorts, a devil-may-care attitude, if one could call it so. People had always been cold to him so he had, at one point, taken to pranking those whom did so, often in highly creative and humiliating ways. Their disapproval and resulting treatment meant that he got a semblance of acknowledgment, even if negative. Anything had been better than being treated as if he did not exist. Yet...

Yet even he had given up on pranking roughly one year and a half ago. He usually did his best to remain as unseen as someone could be in a Ninja village, using his excellent knowledge of Konoha's alleyways to move around without the general populace noticing him. His destinations were always the same anyways: Academy, training grounds, Ichiraku's or his own dinghy apartment.

Ceasing to seek attention and quieting down back then had changed him; having failed the exam after one year of being in the Academy and knowing he would be failing the next one had changed him. He hadn't given up, but he had become even more driven, which was a bonus because ceasing to pull off those pranks he had become known for had left him quite the amount of free time. He only spoke whenever someone spoke with him or unless he was with Old Man Hokage or the Ichirakus. He was no longer treated nor seen as the class clown. He had essentially faded into the background and that had brought more changes than even he was aware of... for even if he had been loud, rather obnoxious and a general nuisance, his peers and even Iruka had acknowledged him back then, even without him knowing so.

Haruno Sakura, whom had unconsciously drawn confidence from the blonde's more than apparent crush on her, had begun changing soon after Naruto stopped asking her on dates and declaring his 'love' for her; Inuzuka Kiba, whom had been an accomplice on several of Naruto's stunts, had felt inadequacy due to how fast Naruto had 'matured', feeling that his own brashness and loudness were inadequate after such a sharp change; Uchiha Sasuke had actually felt unnerved, something none of his colleagues noticed due to the fact that the Uchiha mostly kept to himself (while Sasuke's peers had failed to notice, his teachers had not, although there was naught they could [or should] do about it); Choji and Shikamaru had bee rather confused, as they had seen Naruto as a friend. Shikamaru in particular was befuddled, as it was in his true nature to want to understand things, even if few people knew so. The worst one that was affected by such thing was, however, Hyuga Hinata; the girl had not only looked up to the blonde back then, but she had also had a crush on him. Seeing him fade into the background and 'disappear', in a way, made her quiet down even further, which meant that she and Naruto had been quite similar for a while. All in all, the sole people amid their class who interacted more with Naruto that had not been affected had been Yamanaka Ino and Aburame Shino.

After roughly two weeks since Naruto had changed, Ino snapped at him for a reason Naruto had yet to understand at the present time; she had all but stomped over towards the area in which he usually (if not always) lingered at during break and proceeded to tell him off in a highly creative and coarse way that seemed to be unlike anything Ino would ever say, which had caused Naruto to cock an eyebrow at her midway her rant. She had pretty much stated that Naruto was an 'insensitive, self-centered brat who had no idea about the consequences of [his] actions and how he had really hurt someone due to being selfish'. Naruto's sole answer as she calmed down and regained her breath had been a chilling smile that made Ino back the Hell off. She had since then steered clear of him.

It had been at this point that Hinata had seemingly snapped and begun changing; she pretty much became what her father always expected of her and her grades, which had been slightly above average up until that point, had skyrocketed, literally. She was at the top three of the class on a constant basis, often clashing with Sakura for second place in the theoretical part of it all; Taijutsu-wise? She was better than most people, period.

This brings us to the present day; Sakura had nearly reverted to what she had been like before she had met Ino, Kiba was still quite boisterous (albeit somewhat wary of Naruto), Sasuke outright disregarded him, Shikamaru had pretty much figured everything the general populace knew about Naruto with a bit of snooping and puzzling things together, Choji was torn, as he still remembered the good times he had had with Naruto, one of his first friends, but he also believed that he had hurt Hinata quite a bit (while Choji did not like Hinata per se, he was still a nice guy; plus he valued Ino's opinion and her opinion about her fellow blonde had been made quite clear). That left Ino, who avoided the blonde like the plague; the smile he had given her had given her the creeps way back then and that was enough of a reason for her to avoid him once she had calmed down and realized just what she had said. Hinata and Shino were both neutral towards the blonde as things stood; the former because she did not either like nor dislike him and the latter because they did not know each other on a personal level and it was not in Shino's nature to judge people without knowing them.

Today was a special date, for it was graduation day; most people were currently waiting for Mizuki and Iruka to enter the classroom and to administer the test that would turn them into Ninjas. Today was the beginning of the rest of their lives, pretty much. Everyone promptly shut up as soon as Iruka entered and stood in front of them, looking around, nodding once he had verified if everyone was present.

"Good morning, everyone." he said "As a teacher, this day brings sadness and joy alike... I've seen you grow and change, some more, others less. Today, we put what you have learned to the test. I wish you all good luck... you are going to need it."

Right on cue, Mizuki entered the room caring a stack of paper, which prompted most people to begin chattering.

"Everyone settle down." Mizuki said as he began distributing the sheets face down, dope slapping Kiba as he tried to peek into his "This test was arranged by Hokage-sama. Should you have any complaints, take them directly to him."

Everyone promptly shut up; they knew nothing they said would matter; they would need to do the test before leaving and trying to actually do it, not like they had the guts to do so anyways. Naruto could easily do it but he was not concerned enough to warrant having to do so. Mizuki and Iruka nodded to one another, satisfied; they had expected them to take the news worse than they had; that made things easier. The fact that there was an aura of tension in the room meant that everyone would take the test seriously.

"This written exam covers bits of everything that you have learned in the past three years." Iruka clarified, causing Kiba to pale "The ones with the lowest grades will stay behind and attend to the Academy at least one more year. I am sure you can understand why we are doing this; we need the absolute best this year. You have as of now one hour... you may turn the test and begin."

No sound was uttered, for the would-be Ninjas were still shocked about the turn of events; only after nearly a full minute did most people snapped out of it and began reading and writing...

**One hour later**

Naruto had long since finished; he had become driven to the point in which he had literally inhaled the ten times cursed Academy books, reading them religiously. While his grades were only slightly above average, he was fine with it. He had since a while ago accepted that he would remain mediocre.

He had used to rest of the time to doze off; sleep was not a luxury Naruto allowed himself in the way he once had. Between training and keeping up with his studies, the blonde had little time to do so. He was tired of failing, that being the main reason why he had begun taking things seriously. What had surprised him the most had been the fact that it was not as hard as he had deemed it to be at one point.

"Time's up." Iruka called out, prompting Mizuki to begin collecting the sheets "Everyone stop writing. These tests will be corrected by the time we are done with testing you... meanwhile, you will proceed to the next phase."

**Three hours later**

It had been gruesome for most people; Bukijutsu, Taijutsu, the three basic Jutsu (Kawarimi, Bunshin and Henge [Substitution, Clone and Transformation, respectively]) and a brief (albeit still nerve-wracking) quiz. Naruto only felt mentally drained; he had a lot of energy to burn as usual, something his intensive training had only boosted further. His colleagues were not faring much better, however; as things stood, only three other people appeared to be at ease: Sasuke, Hinata and Shino. The former was actually used to training with a nigh obsessive drive; the latter two, they were good at keeping up appearances due to their clans (yes, Hinata became what a 'perfect' Hyuga should be) and masking their weaknesses. Everyone was, as things stood, waiting for the results, being too nervous to bother with chit-chat.

The pressure eventually became too much to bear, however, and most people began chatting in hushed tones, mostly about the fact that the exam was unlike anything they had ever heard about; they were scared, fearful that they might not make the cut and actually have to remain at the Academy for longer or even be kicked out of the program.

Iruka and Mizuki suddenly entered the classroom, causing all idle chatter to suddenly stop; the tension was palpable in the air as Mizuki spoke up.

"Thank you for waiting." he said "This exam was very enlightening and will more than likely become the norm in the future. Nine people were picked from all of you. This means most of you will be remaining here for at least one more year."

"Thank you, Mizuki." Iruka said with a strained smile, for some odd reason "Let' get this over with. Team 7 will be comprised of Inuzuka Kiba, who had the lowest grades amidst those whom passed, Haruno Sakura, above average grades and Uchiha Sasuke, rookie of the year. Your Sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

Somewhere in the classroom, a certain blonde cursed, causing Iruka to glare at her.

"Moving on..." Iruka continued "Team 8 will be comprised of Uzumaki Naruto, average grades, Hyuga Hinata, top kunoichi and Aburame Shino, above average grades. Your Jonin sensei shall be Yuuhi Kurenai."

Most people actually turned to look at Hinata t this point, as they had expected Ino or Sakura to grab the top kunoichi position; regardless of their shock, Iruka was at least glad that no one had worded it in a way that might piss the Hyuga heiress off. Since she had changed, people had learned to give her space after she showed what she could do if people ticked her off enough. A girl she had faced in a Taijutsu spar had given up on being a Ninja after she trash talked Hinata in an attempt of getting under her skin. Needless to say, that made everyone who witnessed it or heard about such event decide to never try mind games on her.

Team ten..." Iruka said, relived that there were no interjections nor interruptions "Nara Shikamaru, above average grades, Akimichi Choji, with average grades and Yamanaka Ino, above average grades. Everyone who passed is to be in this room tomorrow at eight am sharp. Everyone else will be restarting classes in two weeks. Dismissed."

Everyone whom had not passed was just staring dumbly at him and Mizuki; they had expected to leave as shinobi and yet here they were, being told they would need one year to get another shot at this monstrosity of an exam. One more year, at least. That made several of them reconsider their options, which was more than likely what they wanted.

"Iruka-sensei?" Sakura said, raising her hand "What would have happened if only 8 people had graduated, for example?"

"Not possible." he replied easily "The nine with the best grades are picked unless they all get a failing grade on something or another. Only one person had a foul and even then the rest of his grades were sufficiently high to make up for it more than enough, so it all worked just fine in the end."

Sakura nodded and just lowered her hand, appearing to be thoughtful; she was sure she had aced the written part of it all, but she was barely average at the more... physical part of it all. Her control was decent enough for her to do the techniques easily enough, so her 'above average grading' did make sense.

As they began preparing to leave, most of them with a defeated expression, Mizuki calmly approached Naruto, who was usually the last one to leave the classroom as usual the blonde appeared to like avoiding crowds these days, something Mizuki could respect.

"I need to have a word with you, Naruto." he said, causing the blonde to cock an eyebrow; then, after a few seconds, Naruto nodded and prepared to follow Mizuki.

They walked silently through the Academy until Mizuki found a vacant classroom. Once they were inside and the door was closed, he turned to Naruto and spoke up in a hushed tone, which caused Naruto to tense up; he felt like it was important.

"As you are aware, you passed the exam with a foul." Mizuki stated flatly "While you did pass, we are still unsure whether or not you will make the cut, so we are still split between you and two other candidates. That is why I was asked to overlook an extra exam between you and those two prospects will be doing a competition of sorts to see who takes the place on Team 8. We stated you were on the Team to encourage the others, due to your... reputation. No offense."

Naruto shrugged absently and waved, as to spur Mizuki on.

"Right, the exam." Mizuki said, unfolding a map he took out of his weapons pouch "You are to break into the guarded vault in this location, unseen, and to retrieve the scroll from within. Once you have it, you are to report to this clearing over here." he said, pointing towards an area of the map that appeared to be a clearing "Needless to say, getting caught means you will be sent back to the Academy. I take it you accept?"

Naruto frowned, as if he was feeling suspicious, which made Mizuki feel uneasy, then nodded and left the room; he would not lie. Naruto creeped him the fuck out. He had begun doing so ever since he had changed. He allowed himself a victorious smirk once Naruto left, however; regardless of having failed to fail Naruto due to him being unable to perform the Bunshin no Jutsu, he still managed to carry on with his plan. If things went according to plan, either he would get the scroll and deliver it to Orochimaru-sama or he would get rid of Naruto. A win-win.

**Five hours later**

**Clearing**

Naruto's ruined jacket was laying on a random area of the clearing; the blonde in question, who hadn't picked his hitae-ate up back in the Academy, was sitting against a tree, appearing to be worse for the wear. The clearing appeared to have been the stage of a massive fight, for some reason or another, and Naruto appeared to be oddly pleased.

He jumped to his feet with remarkable ease regardless of appearing to have been fighting the whole afternoon as soon as Iruka appeared on the clearing, seemingly out of nowhere. The Chunin in question halted his march as soon as Naruto did so, as he had been expecting to need to give chase, not for the blonde to approach him. The resulting surprise also halted the torrent of verbal abuse that had been about to leave his mouth.

"Scroll retrieved successfully, Iruka-sensei." Naruto said, his neutral tone causing Iruka to flinch "Did I pass the extra exam?"

Iruka frowned; he had no idea regarding what Naruto was going on about; had Naruto pulled something like this off one year and a half ago, maybe even shortly after he had begun changing, he would have deemed it a prank. Now, however, he could not be sure. I would be out of character of him to do so after maintaining a 'façade' for so long, after all.

"What are you talking about?" Iruka asked, frowning "You already passed the exam, remember?"

"Mizuki-sensei told me I was to perform this extra exam to keep my position in Team 8." Naruto said, looking around, tensing up slightly "He said it was compensation for committing the foul you mentioned when Sakura asked about the pass/fail system. He told me where the scroll was and about this clearing as well."

Iruka raised his guard as soon as Naruto tensed up; the blonde had apparently felt there was something wrong, something Iruka approved. There was no way he, as an Academy instructor, would be unaware of an extra exam. Suddenly, Iruka tackled Naruto to the ground, right on time to avoid seeing the blonde being hit by a Dai Shuriken.

"Mizuki." Iruka growled "I don't suppose you know why Naruto took the Scroll of Sealing Out?"

Mizuki chuckled, eyeing Iruka and Naruto, completely relaxed; he had an ugly sneer plastered on his face.

"Let's suppose you are right." he drawled "What would -you- do? We both know who's stronger between you and me. We have known it since the Academy."

Iruka's frown morphed into a scowl as he tensed up, clearly preparing to charge.

"Before we begin our little fight to the Death, however, let's address the elephant in the room." Mizuki said, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that he was about to face an opponent that was his equal in rank "Naruto. Ever wondered why the villagers disregarded you in such way? Why they ignored or mistreated you, all pranks aside?"

Naruto nodded, the only sign of his anxiety being the fact that he had balled his hands into fists.

"Well, you re the Demon Fox that attacked the village twelve years ago." he said, chuckling "In short, you are the reason why hundreds of our shinobi and even more civilians perished... including Iruka's parents."

Naruto's right eye twitched once... then twice. Then he burst out laughing. Genuine, full-blown laughter that Iruka had deemed Naruto to be incapable of, laughter that echoed around the clearing and that stunned both Chunin; hey had expected denial, anger, sadness. Not amusement... and genuine one at that.

"They are a bunch of morons." Naruto said once he managed to stop laughing "In case you forgot, I am not as thick as you think I am. I fell for this, sure, but it fit, since the exam was completely different. I have done it twice already. I am not the Kyuubi. That much I know. There's no way the Kyuubi would be weaker than a couple of Chunin."

Naruto shook his head with his arms raised up in a typical 'I don't know' fashion.

"Let's be real, Mizuki..." Naruto said "How many would treat me like they do and glare at me if they really knew I as the darn Fox? Would -you- try to provoke a Bijuu or steer clear of one? Hell, the Sandaime would kill my ass himself if I was the fox. No. Whatever I am, I am not a threat. At lest not yet. You know it, everyone who's half-intelligent does. Whatever I am, it does not matter. Iruka's reaction made it clear that this was not an exam and that you used me some way or another. And I am not as forgiving as I once was."

The last statement made Mizuki step back involuntarily; there was a flicker of fear in his face for a fleeting second… then he remembered that he was facing the two-time Dead Last, the Failure. Chuckling, he retrieved his second (and last) Dai Shuriken from his back and began spinning it, as to enhance the throwing speed, before throwing it. Naruto, for Iruka's shock, did nothing to dodge, did not move. He merely watched the Shuriken approach. Iruka moved in the blink of an eye and shielded Naruto, which actually caused Naruto's eyes to widen; he had not expected Iruka to protect him. It didn't matter. As long as Iruka survived, at least.

"Tch. Annoying pest." Mizuki said as he approached Iruka and removed the Shuriken from Iruka's back and placing a foot on his back to keep him from moving "Guess I'll need to cut him down. I can always pin it on you and run with the scroll."

Naruto said nothing even as Mizuki lifted his hand, his intent being using his Shuriken to slice Iruka's neck with it… then he was smashed in the back by something, being sent in the direction Naruto was standing. Surprise stopped him from making any move… and only once he collided with Naruto did he understand it would have been pointless; the Naruto his flying body hit dissipated in a plume of smoke. Taking it for a Kawarimi, Mizuki turned towards the direction from whence his aggressor had come and growled… only to be hit from behind again. While still facing Naruto. That made him think the ANBU were onto him, which made him desperate. And desperate people did desperate things, so he grabbed Iruka and spoke up.

"If you do not stop attacking me, Iruka here will feel the brunt of my wrath, ANBU-teme!" Mizuki shouted, which gave Naruto pause "Now, what I want you to do is to give me the scroll, grab the Kyuubi and get your asses away from me. I'll drop Iruka off at the damn border. If you fuckers come too close, I'll kill him. How does that sound?!"

"It sounds like you lost it." Naruto said, his right eyebrow being cocked "There are no ANBU here. There is no one else aside from us three."

"Who do you think I am, you piece of trash?" Mizuki asked "There's no way in Hell you could have attacked me! Iruka's out of commission for now too, which means there has to be someone else here!"

"Well… there technically is. But they are all one person… which is one of us three." Naruto said, shrugging afterwards "I guess showing you would be better."

He merely waved towards Mizuki and several vicious impacts that forced him to drop Iruka followed. He was then tossed towards a tree. Then he saw them: Naruto's. A dozen of them. And there was a weight to their steps. Sound, too. He paled as he realized that the failure who could not make a regular Clone to save his own ass had managed to learn the Kage Bunshin, a far more advanced and demanding Jutsu, one based on his worst skill, in mere hours. One of the Naruto's advanced and did a strange handseal. Several more Naruto's popped up and approached Mizuki.

"You used me..." Naruto said neutrally as his Clones approached the prone form of Mizuki "You used me, tried to get rid of me and tried to use Iruka-sensei as a hostage. You even tried to kill him at one point. I am tempted to maul you to death after using that toy of yours to rip you a new one. But I'd rather have them do whatever they do to traitors, be it imprisonment, be it killing your ass after extracting whatever information of use you may have. I have no idea since what we learn at the Academy does not cover that for some reason or another."

With that said, several Naruto Clones proceeded to beat the living shit out of Mizuki while Naruto watched;. Watching it felt far better than hitting him would. He knew he had made the right choice when one of his Kage Bunshin ht Mizuki so hard he dispelled. Mizuki could take a beating, Naruto would give him that, but in the end he succumbed to unconsciousness.

With that, Naruto dispelled most clones, leaving only six; two to carry Iruka, two for carrying Mizuki and an extra two to make sure Mizuki didn't try anything if he regained consciousness. He needed to get back to the village as quickly as possible in order to get Iruka looked at.

The strange entourage arrived at the village gates fifteen minutes later, which promptly caused Naruto to be detained and paraded in the village as if he were a prisoner of war, something that made both the blonde and Iruka to glare at his captors.

Once they arrived to the office, Hiruzen looked at Naruto, his expression being blank; his relationship with the blonde had become aloof over the years for the simple reason that Naruto had been, from what he could tell via his scrying device, busy with actually training, something he approved. Not all the changes he had seen in the blonde were good, as he had become a bit too driven, which reminded him of how Orochimaru had been at one point; utterly driven, wanting to prove himself and make his parents proud. Of course, this had been before he had grown up and become twisted.

"Good evening, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen gravelly intoned "I am quite sure you are aware why you were brought here. I will be giving you five minutes to explain why did you take the scroll and why two of my Chunin are in such state."

Naruto nodded and proceeded to tell what had transpired after the Genin Exam; his foul, Mizuki's extra exam, how he had gone around the security around the Forbidden Scroll, how he had learned a B Rank Kinjutsu in two or so hours, how he had used it to train whilst waiting for Mizuki to reach the rendezvous point and how his ploy had been discovered. His expression shifted to one of confusion as he told the Sandaime how Iruka had protected him, how he had played a little mind game with Mizuki and how he had suppressed him and brought both him and Iruka back. Hiruzen waited for nearly a minute, digesting all of it; he had not expected Naruto to be able to take down a Chunin, even one that was low level, rattled, underestimating him and overly specialized as Mizuki was. All those factors had led to Mizuki's easy defeat, but even without those in the equation, Naruto would have still been able to defeat Mizuki; the sheer amount of Kage Bunshin he could do was massive enough to tire a measly Chunin out. Some Tokubetsu Jonin would more likely than not still be taken down in such manner. There were simply too many for a single normal Shinobi to handle.

"Genin Uzumaki Naruto." Hiruzen said, authority ringing in his voice; Naruto suddenly saw the man the Sandaime had once been, a fearsome enemy, a revered Shinobi "No punishment shall be issued due to the fact that they came directly from a superior, You can pick your hitae-ate from the Academy. It should still be open. You are dismissed."

Naruto eyed the Sandaime, incredulity all but evident to the aged Shinobi; had he truly expected to be punished while following orders from a Chunin? Somehow, he was saddened by the thought that his once surrogate grandson could fear him and have such a lack of faith in him but then again, the blonde had been mostly on his own throughout his life, moreso in the last one year and a half. Maybe having a team and someone actually willing to help him (he had made sure he picked an adequate Sensei for him) would make him smile more often and stop being as driven as he currently was, because it was far from healthy. He could see a strain on the blonde he adored, a burden that ought not to be there for too long.

"I have one last question, Hokage-sama." Naruto said, failing to notice the honorific made Hiruzen flinch "Why was I picked to hold the Kyuubi?"

That question made Hiruzen pause; the blonde hadn't mentioned that he was aware of his status as a Jinchuriki.

"How did you come across that information?" the Sandaime asked "It is supposed to be highly classified."

"Mizuki told it to me before I kicked his rear end around the clearing in which this night's events took place." Naruto said, shrugging "Is it really true? If it is, why? Why me?"

"I am not able to say at this point, but once you prove you are able to fend for yourself, I can." Hiruzen said, looking down "There's far more to it than you might imagine and that knowledge may well get you killed if it is leaked."

"So you would have me be a Chunin or higher to become aware of it?" the blonde asked.

"It is not a matter of rank, but rather your capabilities as a Shinobi, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said "There is a particular Genin of ours or two that can more likely than not give any Chunin and Jonin a run for their money. Thank you for informing me that Mizuki made you aware of your status, however; on top of treason, abuse of power and confidence and attempting to defect, he committed capital offense by revealing an S-rank secret. That means his mind will be picked apart for any information of use he might have and swiftly executed."

"Why have it be a secret in the first place?" Naruto asked, curiosity evident in his voice.

"To give you at least a chance of having a normal life, Naruto." Hiruzen said, rubbing his temples "By making sure their parents did not tell their kids, I had hoped they would not pass along the hatred they had for what you contain. I sadly overestimated their humanity and rationality, something for which I am incredibly sorry."

"Don't be." Naruto said softly "You tried and that counts more than most people can say, even if their stupidity is too great for them to see anything other than the fox. You and a few others are the only reason why I'll fight for this village. While I did want to be Hokage a while ago and dreamed of earning their respect by reaching that rank, today made it clear that that's not something I can do anymore, because there will always be people who refuse to see anything other than the fox when they look at me. I give up on becoming Hokage. I'll become the best damn Shinobi I can be instead."

Hiruzen nodded sadly; it was probably for the best. Naruto had changed and was not the once bright ray of sunshine he had been; while calmer and better spoken now, the blonde had had a charisma to his words and beliefs a while ago, something that had all but faded away this fateful evening; he could see that the blonde was done with trying to prove himself to people that did not appreciate him even after he had done his best to stay out of sight in a village in which he either got glares or utter indifference. As long as he did not turn out into another Orochimaru, Hiruzen knew great things could be expected from him. If he did stray from his given path… it would not come to that, or so Hiruzen hoped; comparing Naruto with the likes of Orochimaru was pushing it. There had always been something of about his wayward student and he knew it. He had never been the same after losing his parents. Naruto was a different case entirely. There was something about him, something that told Hiruzen that he was meant for greatness. Many would think Hiruzen was merely seeing the strongest Bijuu and speaking of such, but that was not it. He could tell Naruto himself was special, moreso than many would believe. Only time would tell where is new dream, his new goal, took him; all Hiruzen could do now was to be there as much as he could without being accused of favoritism.

AN: Wew… not bad for a first chapter if I can say so myself; I beg you to take into consideration that this idea probably lacks creativity and someone has probably already been here. Can't say I've read every single fanfiction out there to know. I've always liked the idea of a different Naruto exactly because he is a typical Shonen here of the likes of Goku, even if he eventually matured some.

I should warn you right now that I have rough plans for the path this fanfiction will take; I do intend for Naruto to be quite powerful here. The way Naruto came back after the timeskip made me consider stopping watching Naruto way back then; it was simply too underwhelming.. Naruto barely progressed in the first, even. It got two high level Techniques (aside from Kage Bunshin) but that was it. In the end he had to rely on the Kyuubi, the strongest darn Bijuu, and he still lost. Granted, the Bijuu were probably not exactly planned back then but the fact that he lost remains. Here, the story is going to take a different path, as you can imagine; there will be no team 7 the way it was., which will hopefully make it different from a retelling. Key events remain, but the events leading up to them are not exactly the same for obvious reasons. The test itself was made different for reasons that will be explain down the line, more likely than not in four to five chapters.

Needless to say, any criticism is welcome; flaming will be ignored because I have better things to do than to answer people who have nothing better to do with their lives aside from attacking the efforts other people put in at entertaining the Naruto (in this case) fanbase. With all that said and done, hae a good one and see you next time!


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I would like to thank everyone whom read the first chapter and took the time to review the story; feedback is a key element in story telling, one I lacked on my previous attempts at writing a story due to the nasty habit I had of writing ten or so chapters per sitting (short chapters, but still). Adding the fact that I employed notebooks to write them and the level of difficulty and to attain feedback was pushed towards a whole new tier of troublesome. Needless to say I learned my lesson so here I am.

I will be blunt; there are bound to be grammar mistakes and the occasional spelling mistake; I am not a native English speaker and I am more used to using a single... let's call it manner of writing; that means the characters may sometimes feel off and so one, something I noticed when reviewing the first chapter after posting it. If any of you feel any of the characters is off, please let me know. I will try to remedy it.

I also noticed the last chapter alternated a LOT between the term 'Shinobi' and 'Ninja'... so I am going to be using Shinobi alone, unless I am referring to 'Ninja tools' (Shuriken, Kunai, Makibishi Spikes [caltrops] and so on). More Japanese-ness because why not? Feel free to let me know should you not agree with such decision.

Oh, yes; Naruto does not belong to me. Sad.

Chapter II

**Naruto's apartment, 5:50 am**

Naruto was bored, pure and simple; he had actually tried to allow himself to sleep for the first time since he had picked up the pace, having decided to rest in order to be ready for whatever came tomorrow. After keeping to the rough schedule for one year and a half, however, he felt restless, as if something was missing. Maybe he should actually be training, as missions, once they came, were bound to cut his training time considerably... or so he thought. He really had no idea regarding what to expect in what regarded missions and their objectives, as the Academy had been oddly vague about such subject, for some reason or another. As things stood, all he had to do was to drop by Hiruzen's office to know where he needed to be to take the required picture for his registration and he only intended to drop by at around ten o'clock, as he knew Hiruzen to be the busiest before then. That left him with a bit too much free time, which eventually made the blonde sigh despondently before he got up and left his apartment. After locking his door, he headed towards the more secluded training areas, not noticing he was being followed.

As he navigated through the alleys, he thought about what he could do now that he actually had sparring partners. He had made considerable progress wile training on his own.; adding something to actually fight made him salivate at the prospect, at the potential results he could get. Maybe his training would not differ that much if he were to actually gt some real fighting experience in. Only time would tell, really; he knew he would more than likely never surpass the so-called geniuses, but he had stopped caring about such high goals a while ago, opting to be the best he could be without actually comparing himself with someone else. He would probably only be disappointed if he kept on doing so.

Once he found an empty training field, he nodded to himself and performed a cross-shaped handseal, generating quite a dense cloud of smoke as he spawned two Clones; both nodded at him and charged without any prompt, knowing what their intended purpose was from the get go. As Naruto dodged and blocked, he found himself hard-pressed to land a blow on any of his assailants. Yet after five minutes, he began seeing a pattern in the actions of his Clones. That allowed him to gradually gain footing and to begin dodging more than he was blocking. A few minutes later, the clones had to begin dodging(blocking the occasional blow tossed by the original. Eventually, one of the Clones was dispelled, so Naruto just spawned another without skipping a beat and carried on. He widened his eyes, however, when the new clone began using his attained experience to push him back once more, moves he had used himself to dodge and launch blows of his own mere minutes ago. He chuckled as the implications became apparent, which made him falter and receive quite the nasty punch to his jaw, causing him to fall. He hastily tumbled, as to avoid leaving his chest exposed and leaped to his feet, grimacing as he was nailed with a kick on the chest. Regardless, he remained on his feet and proceeded to nail the offending Clone with a devastating punch, causing it to dispel. Grinning ear to ear, he continued the same routine, eventually discarding his jacket and t-shirt, as to avoid getting them roughed up. His observer, still there, cocked an eyebrow; while they had expected Naruto to have a considerable degree of development in the physical department, the lean muscle covering his frame was a bit too respectable for a twelve year old. He was lucky there hadn't been any mistakes in his training, as training the wrong way could lead to problems in the muscular tissue and stunt one's growth. Wait… maybe that was why Naruto was so short? Shrugging, the one observing Naruto left silently, leaving the blonde to his training. There were still things that needed to be done before tomorrow.

**Naruto's apartment, 9:30 am**

Naruto was in high spirits as he unlocked the door to his apartment and went in; Mizuki's treachery had to be his biggest lucky break yet. This had been the most productive training session he had ever had, which was saying a lot; ever since he had stopped messing around, he had used all resources an Academy student could feasibly use to try to improve; his grades had begun raising after one week of actual effort. That was how easy it had been; he had always preferred to mess around because people wouldn't notice him if he actually did well. Being anything but the best meant he would go by unnoticed, so he had opted to be the worst. He sighed; his train of thought tended to go down the same road as of late, which he found odd. Maybe he just needed something more to occupy himself with. Shrugging, the blonde took a quick shower, dressed and departed towards the Hokage Tower, using the alleys as he always did whenever he needed to move around.

On his way there, he actually felt like shouting, of releasing the pent-up energy he was feeling in his body; this was it! His first step towards becoming something more. While he no longer cared about being the Hokage, he wanted to be strong. They could despise him for all he cared; they could hate him and spit on his grave, trash-talk all they wanted… but they would acknowledge his power.

As he entered the Tower, he went straight to Hiruzen's office; past altercations with the receptionists had made Hiruzen just give Naruto a green card. There was always at least a hidden ANBU near the entrance anyways, which meant that Naruto would never interrupt anything he should not. He absently knocked at the door, his answer being a tired 'Enter.'.

"Ah, Naruto." Hiruzen greeted "I was not expecting you to be here this early. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"Good morning, Hokage-sama." Naruto said, bowing "Mizuki kind of dragged me away right after Iruka-sensei told everyone who had passed, so I don't really know where and when I need to be for the registration photo."

"Ah, yes." Hiruzen said "I completely forgot to tell you about that last evening... then again, we both had a lot on our plates. I am sure you are aware you should not disclose the information I am about to tell you, but Mizuki was executed. Breaking him did not take any strenuous effort, so we know under whose orders he was doing what he did. I will eventually tell you who, once you get a higher security clearance. It was your actions that prevented him from stealing one of our most prized treasures."

"If it is that precious, how was it so easy to get my hands on it?" Naruto asked, frowning.

"That's just it, my boy." Hiruzen said, actually chuckling "It was not easy. You made it look so, you think it was so... but all but the most expert of infiltrators would have struggled to break in. Thanks to you breaking in, security is actually reinforced and new measures will be taken to ensure that scroll remains where it belongs. If Mizuki had actually gotten away with it... well, it would have been catastrophic."

Naruto slowly nodded, still trying to wrap his head about the fact that he was actually good at something that did not take him a considerable effort to learn/master. Maybe it was the experience he had attained while laying low around Konoha? Meh. Didn't matter. He was apparently skilled at it and he would put it to good use, somehow, someway.

"I should get going, Hokage-sama." Naruto said "I would still like to train some more today, before tomorrow. We're probably going to be doing missions right away."

"Do me a favor before you go, Naruto." Hiruzen said after hesitating for a few seconds; the blonde nodded, looking uneasy "When we're alone or unless the situation demands seriousness, call me Hiruzen."

Naruto's eyes widened; his gaze then grew distant for some reason Hiruzen couldn't fathom. As good as he was at reading people, he was not by any means omniscient. And while he had been good at reading Naruto had one point, that was sadly no longer the case. He truly cared for the blonde, however, and he wanted to repair that lost connection between them, one that had been strong until not that long ago. It was not too late.

"I..." Naruto seemed at a loss for words, for the first time since they had interacted after he had grown colder, more distant; yet the beginnings of a smile told Hiruzen his gamble had paid off "...whatever you say, Hiruzen-sama."

"That's a beginning, I suppose." Hiruzen said lightheartedly "Move along now. You might as well ask to have your photo taken while here. I am pretty sure you can't wait to resume your training. You are actually in the possession of quite the advantageous tool to do so as well."

Offering a sly wink right before Naruto turned on his heel to leave, Hiruzen returned to his paperwork; he was expecting a batch to be dropped soon, so the sooner he got this done and over with, the sooner he would be able to relax for a while. His old bones needed it...

**Training ground, 1:30 pm **

After he had gotten his photo taken and some minor paperwork filled (the Academy was in possession of all of his details already, so he only needed his registration number and to sign a few documents to make them official), the blonde had returned to the training ground he had occupied that morning and had resumed his training. As things stood, he was still at it; it was funny how dedicated the so-called loser/dead last could be once he actually had a manner through which he could train to his heart's content. He only knew of one other in their class who trained in a similar fashion, although he was sure that any attempts to get closer would result in nothing but wasted time. Thus he was never more glad once the full implications of the Kage Bunshin settled in, after the whole debacle with Mizuki. It was basically a jackpot, in more ways than one. He had overwhelmed a Chunin with numbers alone and a mind trick that followed the same principles as a prank, something he hadn't indulged in ages.

Deciding to take a break and get him some lunch, Naruto dispelled the two clones he had been fighting and proceeded to get his shirt and jacket, which he had discarded before beginning the session this time around, as he did not want to ruin them. He knew there were better colors for Shinobi to wear but he had better things to do with his cash other than indulging in a shopping spree. From one to ten, priorities were 10 on his list; that was how little he cared about it, although he could admit that he rather liked the color orange.

As usual, he used the alleys to get around to Ichiraku's, humming a jaunty tune for the heck of it; soon enough, he would actually begin learning more advanced stuff, which meant progress, more things to work with. He hoped that the new content would make up for the reduced training time he would be getting. It took training with such drive to understand how Sasuke managed to do it; it was almost addictive, to strive to better oneself and to surpass their shortcomings.

The blonde's musings were cut short as he arrived to his destination; he offered Ayame, who was behind the counter, a small smile; she and her father were amid the few he would actually do anything for, no questions asked. That was really saying something, considering he barely spoke with anyone. He had few who he treasured, so they were that much more important to him.

"Hello, Ayame-chan." Naruto greeted, still smiling; the girl, who had been spacing out, focused her gaze on him and proceeded to smile back, her cheeks flushing slightly had being caught daydreaming "How have you been?"

"Just fine, Naruto-kun." she answered, huffing, still embarrassed at being caught so unaware "Training hard as usual?"

"Of course!" Naruto said, a spark of his old personality coming to the surface as it usually did when he got enthusiastic "I wouldn't be much of a Shinobi if I did not train."

Ayame giggled softly, shaking her head; while Naruto was not as outgoing as he had once been, she still liked him quite a lot. He was like the little brother she had never had, which was saying quite a bit, as she did not have that many friends as well. She and her father had been worried once they had seen Naruto so despondent about his lack of progress regarding his training and his overall grades, coupled with the knowledge that he would not make it with his second attempt at graduating earlier than the rest of his class. Yet he had remained warm towards them, regardless of the fact that they began hearing whispers that the 'brat' had disappeared, which had confused them to no end until Naruto explained them just what was it that he was doing; it had actually unnerved quite a lot of people, the fact that he was only seen at the Academy and occasionally at Ichiraku's. Many people had been paranoid during the first month, thinking he had been preparing a massive prank. They could despise him for what he held inside of him, but they respected him for the pranks he pulled off whenever he felt like someone had crossed him. Begrudging respect was still respect.

"Anyways, Ayame-chan, I'll have two bowls of beef ramen." Naruto said, placing the money on the counter, as he usually did these days; he had once forgotten to pay due to being in a hurry, "There's no need to rush… still recovering from the beating I took."

Ayame cocked an eyebrow, intrigued at his choice of words, moreso because he appeared mostly fine, just a bit roughed up. Shrugging, she headed towards the kitchen, as to tell her father that their favorite customer was here and to prepare his order. Teuchi would probably want to speak a bit with him as well, not to mention taking a break; rush hour had ended not long ago.

As Naruto waited for his order, he could only marveling at how good he actually felt; he had felt an impending doom of sorts regarding the Genin exam. Now that it was done and over with and that he had actually seen his training pay off, he couldn't wait for his next test, be it what it may, his next chance at proving himself. That was the sole manner through which he could actually see if he had progressed, unlike what he had thought at one point. He had been disappointed whenever he trained, seeing no progress due to being unable to see beyond three days or so. It had taken him thee years to fully learn that lesson, but he had.

"Naruto, my boy!" Teuchi greeted, snapping Naruto out of his reverie "It has been a while since we saw you around. What have you been up to?"

"Teuchi-ojisan." Naruto said, offering him a small, genuine smile "I've been getting ready for the Genin exam. I finally made it."

Teuchi nodded, offering his favorite customer a fond smile; he knew that meant that he might lose Naruto, but that was his dream. He would rather have Naruto die young and working towards his dream rather than have him live a life he wished not, against his will. His Ayame had never expressed any desire in becoming a Shinobi... while he was glad, had that been her wish, he wouldn't have stopped her regardless of that potentially breaking his heart. People needed to be happy with the lives they led, like he was with his. He loved cooking; having his own stand, talking with customers over rumors and life in general while serving them a warm meal was his dream. Other people should also follow their calling in life... and he suspected Naruto would take to being a Shinobi like he had taken to cooking. It was one of those strange feelings one couldn't really explain.

"Congratulations, lad!" Teuchi said, smiling regardless of the unease he felt towards his choice in career "I'm glad to see your hard work paying off. Maybe you'll get to tell me about your missions somewhere down the line, as long as it doesn't get you in trouble."

"Sure thing." Naruto said, grinning "You know... it's funny. It's time sped up once I began taking things seriously. Next thing I know, I stop to think and I passed the exam that had been giving me nightmares for ages. It's really weird."

"Ah, the joys of being young again..." Teuchi said, a nostalgic smile illuminating his face "I once wanted to be a Shinobi, you know? I enrolled in the Academy, but I saw how hard it actually was and dropped out at the first year. I had a bunch of odd jobs all around the town, and did a bit of everything... then I discovered how much I loved cooking. The rest is history."

Naruto chuckled; it was funny to think that one of the nicest people he knew could have ended up being a Shinobi like he had just become; that'd also mean that he'd probably never have met them. It was a sobering thought... he might've never met Teuchi and Ayame had Teuchi decided to keep trying like Naruto had.

"I can't stop imagining you tossing chopsticks instead of kunai now." Naruto said, causing Teuchi to mock-glare at him "Welp. Looks like my order is here."

"Order up." Ayame said as she placed the blonde's order in front of him, giggling as he began to devour it as if it could disappear at any second "You should eat more slowly, you know? That can't be healthy."

Naruto finished it in what could be considered a record time for someone else and shrugged; he never seemed to get sick, at all. That alone was the reason why he did things most people would not normally do, this one being one such thing. It was almost funny to see the reactions he could get out of people whenever they saw him training his ass off in the rare times it was actually cold in Konoha, eating unhealthy amounts of food at a ludicrous pace and so on.

"Doesn't really mater, Ayame-chan. I can't get sick as far as I know." he said, patting his slightly dilated stomach "I will be back later, for my dinner. See you then!"

Father and daughter chuckled as their favorite customer left; it took a weight off their shoulders, to see Naruto's spirits lifted. The blonde had not been quite the same since he had realized he would be the so-called Dead Last once more. They doubted even Naruto realized how different he was from yesterday. It was almost like comparing night and day. There were still some reservations there, as one might imagine, but he was closer to what he had been one year or so ago; it was hard for them to tell, really. Snapping out of their reverie, the father-daughter duo went back to work. While rush hour was over, there was still plenty that needed to be done.

**Training Field, fifteen minutes later**

When Naruto arrived again, there were already two people there; he frowned, picking up the pace, for he recognized them: Hinata and Shino, i.e., his teammates. He eyed the inquisitively, since he had no idea regarding why they would be on the training ground he had occupied that morning. He was aware they were not exactly close, too.

"Hinata-san, Shino-san." Naruto intoned "What are you doing here?"

They both gave him a blank look; at least, he assumed Shino did so, because he was hard to read to his high-collared jacket and his sunglasses. After a few seconds, Shino surprisingly shrugged.

"We were asked by our new sensei to report to this training field." Shino droned "We were told you would be here after lunch and as such not to worry about your presence."

Naruto nodded absently and looked around him; their sensei appeared not to be there still, so he shrugged and created two Kage Bunshin, preparing to resume his training. He failed to see his teammates' reactions once he did so, a reaction that was ten times more noticeable once he actually began _hitting _what they thought to be clones and the clones actually _hitting back_. Hinata even activated her Byakugan, while Shino discretely sent one of his Kikaichu towards the fighting trio. They were actually impressed; they had never heard of solid clones. While Shino was familiar with his Clan's Mushi Bunshin, it was not the same because Naruto seemed to be using nothing but Chakra to shape the Clones.

Naruto remained oblivious to this, of course; he was having a ball, devising new moves on the fly, evading in any way he could and trying to land a single blow against the offending clones. He had managed to come up with a few moves while eating, moves that actually needed to be tested... and what better way to do so than using his never-ending supply of training dummies? Unbeknownst to him, his teammates were observing his training regime, mesmerized; Naruto had just taken a rather nasty combo and was sent tumbling back. As his clones high fived, he narrowed his eyes and discarded his jacket and shirt, charging at them and unleashing a torrent of blows, to which the clones' answer was blocking or dodging. Naruto finally managed to land a hit on one of them, which caused it to dispel. He merely made another one yet again and kept going.

He suddenly halted as his clones were dispelled by two swift blows, not delivered by himself; he eyed his teammates quizzically, thinking it had been one of them. Seeing them so far away, however, he figured it hadn't been any of them, which meant there was someone else nearby. Naruto sighed and dusted himself off and heading towards his clothes, proceeding to dust them off as well and to put them on. Their sensei was probably nearby.

"Why hello there." a female voice called out, mirth as clear as day present therein "I can see one of you is quite enthusiastic about training."

Seemingly out of nowhere, a female in her twenties appeared, literally; she seemingly faded into reality before their very eyes. Her fashion sense was quite exotic and consisted on a bandage dress or whatever one could call it. She had long black hair and, oddly enough, red eyes. She gave each one of them a once over and nodded, seemingly satisfied, although Naruto seemed flustered about being singled out.

"I am your Jonin sensei, Yuuhi Kurenai." she said pleasantly "There would normally be an extra test in order to weed out the ones who would not become a team, but due to reasons that were not disclosed to us, the test was changed. We were given orders, however, to assess your skills in order to ascertain what kind of pointers we should be giving you."

Naruto, Shino and Hinata looked at one another, frowning; while the two latter had already been assessing somewhat what Naruto could do, the same could not be said for the blonde. As much as he had changed, he was still him and some things took time. At least he was more than willing to admit so now, a considerable change.

"For example, I can see that Naruto and Hinata will be our heavy combat specialists..." Kurenai said, eyeing them both "... while Shino will cover them from a safe distance. Of course, none of it is really set in stone. It comes down to personal development, since I am not here to tell you what to specialize on. I am here to help you with gaining experience and to know the roads you can follow. I am curious to see how you will develop, really. A clan heiress who improved drastically in the past year and a half... a silent, introverted heir who is stronger than he lets on... and a former prankster and once known dead last with an A Rank Kinjutsu at his beck and call."

They all shifted uncomfortably; those calmly delivered facts made the three Genin aware that she had snooped around for information; Naruto was quite sure she knew of his furry little secret as well. Naruto would have cared if he had discovered before he had stepped his game up. Now, however, he simply couldn't find it in himself to care. He was above it. It was actually better they knew now rather than after establishing a connection with them and have them turn their backs on him. As such, he shrugged and spoke up.

"You forgot one thing, Kurenai-sensei." Naruto drawled "You forgot to tell them I am the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. That is an S Rank secret, though. Don't go around telling it to anyone; pretty sure you know what'd happen."

While Hinata was seemingly frozen, Shino's eyebrows actually became visible from behind his sunglasses; that had to be the most expressive things Naruto had ever seen Shino do. They both looked towards a pale Kurenai after a few seconds, as if to check the veracity of such claim. The Jonin nodded before eyeing Naruto warily.

"Why did you feel the need to reveal such sensitive information now?" she asked "I was not even aware you knew about it."

"Discovered it yesterday." Naruto said as if it didn't matter "Otherwise everyone else would know at this point. Hiding it and making revealing the _secret _punishable just drew more attention to it anyways."

The way the blonde emphasized the word 'secret' let Kurenai know exactly what Naruto thought about the whole thing; while the intentions were good, it sounds like it wasn't really enough. Kurenai knew that if Naruto hadn't been there, the village could have been razed to the ground and most, if not all, of its Shinobi killed off like mere insects facing a wrathful god.

"At least that explains why the adults do not seem to like you." Hinata said idly, seemingly recovered from the shock "I'll have to ascertain what it means, but it should not matter as long as we can complete the missions we get assigned."

"Indeed." Shino droned "The fact that Naruto-san holds the Kyuubi does not mean he is the Kyuubi. Me and those of my clan would know so better than most."

Kurenai nodded, although Naruto's expression denoted surprise; it actually hurt Kurenai to see him so surprised at seeing people accept a part of him he was clearly still trying to come to terms with. It actually made her feel pity and her gaze probably revealed it because Naruto slumped his shoulders and shook his head. He clearly did not want pity; he wanted true recognition, something Hiruzen had told her yesterday. Out of the little information gathering sessions (spying) she had done on her students, Naruto's had been the most unexpected. She only remembered seeing him as a prankster; she had admittedly failed to take note of the fact that she had stopped seeing him less and less, with other people hot in his pursuit. She also remembered being surprised over the fact that he managed to lead quite the chases around town. All of a sudden, she was his student and all previous notions she had had of him were swept with the wind after seeing a simple training session, one he had been conducting with such ease that she'd have thought he had known the Kage Bunshin for weeks or even months as opposed to having stumbled on it by accident the day before. She was beginning to think he would be the most versatile of the team still; unless Shino went over a stricter Taijutsu regime, he would remain a mid to long range combatant. The same thing applied to Hinata and close range; unless she learned Ninjutsu or Bukijutsu, a short to mid range combatant she would remain. Naruto was a blank slate in most cases, however; he could potentially fulfill any role and fight at any range with adequate training. Plus there was the Kage Bunshin memory transfer. She actually shivered. Naruto could actually become a monster, in the S Rank sense of the word.

The discomfort Kurenai was feeling over such prospect was probably showing, because she could feel the tension in the air. It didn't matter anyways. They ere a team, for better r worse, and they would remain together unless something unexpected occurred. Of course, one should always expect the worst; things could go south in the blink of an eye, especially for a Shinobi. The fact that Hinata and Shino accepted him regardless of him dropping such a bomb on them out of the blood made her actually believe they might be able to become a great team regardless of the rather unique make-up. She had thought her team would be a tracking team with Hinata, Shino and Kiba regardless of the fact that Kakashi would have made an infinitely better Jonin sensei for such role. Then all of the sudden, the exams were completely overhauled and Kiba actually became the dead last, more likely than not due to his sub-par Genjutsu and Ninjutsu (outside his clan's Jutsus, at least) coupled with a worse understanding of the theoretical aspect than Naruto, who had apparently become slightly better at everything.

Hiruzen had also given them orders to have their teams ready to participate in the Chunin exams, for some reason; that alone raised the alarm amid the Jonin. Rookies participating in the Chunin Exam, while not unheard of, was quite rare. Of course, in the end it all came down to political reasons, so they would need to make do and actually train them at a rather fast pace (for peaceful times, at least; nothing beat the necessity of having strong soldiers to defend your village's interests as motivation to train them, since failure could make the difference between victory and defeat). The fact that the Uchiha was in the graduating class was probably part of it; they needed to show their strength someway, somehow... and the Uchiha had been quite powerful and revered as feared foes across the Elemental Nations.

"I will be blunt." Kurenai said, composing herself; this had been quite the surprising day after all "I will be pushing you. We were told you had to be ready for the Chunin exams in five months. Not accomplishing that goal will make you look inferior to your ex-classmates. This is the real world now and you will discover just how much of a slave driver I can be if pushed far enough."

She actually smirked at this point; while surprised that none of them were nervous at the prospect, she did not let it show. She had already had her composure broken for too many times. She needed to look professional in order to be credible to her team. They needed to respect her, to see her as a good leader... otherwise they would not follow her without reservations, something that would be needed for the months ahead. The less they questioned her and her methods, the more headway they would be able to make in what regarded their training. She wanted nothing less than their best.

"I was under the impression rookie teams were not expected to participate in the Chunin Exams, much less ones this soon after the Genin Graduation." Shino said, his tone neutral as usual "Is there any specific occasion?"

"Not that I am aware of." Kurenai lied smoothly, without remorse "I can only speculate at this point, although I am sure information will eventually be forthcoming, both to me and you."

Shino nodded and left it at that, prompting Kurenai to motion them to sit down/get comfortable; Naruto plopped down whilst his teammates sat down in a far more graceful manner. This team would be interesting, she was sure now.

"My name is Yuuhi Kurenai, I am 27 years old and I am a Konoha Jonin." she said "I am Genjutsu specialist, although that does not mean that I am defenseless in the other Ninja Arts. My likes are drinking tea, studying Chakra Control theories and refining my Art. My dislikes are slackers, dishonest people and traitors. My dream is to become the best Genjutsu user in the world. Hinata, carry on."

"My name is Hyuga Hinata, I am twelve years old." she droned "As a Hyuga, I specialize in close range combat. I like training and studying the Juken (Gentle Fist), I dislike weakness and pettiness. My dream is to be the best clan leader I can be."

Kurenai nodded, having been expecting something along those lines. She then eyed Shino and motioned him to carry on.

"My name is Aburame Shino, twelve." he answered "My interests include studying different species f insects and evolutionary process of the Kikaichu. I dislike brash people who think illogically and cannot see life through different perspectives other than their own. My dream is to develop the ultimate Kikaichu subspecies."

Kurenai nodded, motioning towards Naruto, who sighed; he was not used to this sort of thing anymore, of having attention n him, if the tension on his posture was anything to go by.

"Name's Naruto, twelve." he said, rolling his eyes as he said the second part "I like training, laying low and studying new ways of getting something done. I dislike people who think they know everything and bigots. My dream... to be the best Shinobi I can be."

Hinata and Shino eyed him quizzically; they had thought his goal had been to become Hokage; he had made it known way back then, since they could remember. Then again this was hardly the Naruto they had met. He had changed, for better or worse, and it showed. Maybe their team would actually go further than they had discussed while waiting for their sensei and teammate.

"I already have a vague idea abut what we will be working on tomorrow." Kurenai said "I went over your results and know what you need to be even better than you are. You _will _be ready for the exams and you will show everyone else just how far you can go."

The three Genins nodded, knowing that the following months would be exceptionally difficult; Naruto honestly did not mind, because he was already used to training his rear end off. Shino and Hinata looked neutral but the tension in their shoulders told Kurenai everything; they were apprehensive. Yet whatever they felt mattered not. They were, for all intents and purposes, soldiers. Their duty was to be ready in five months, no questions asked. If they failed, it would not be due t lack of effort from their part.

Kurenai was satisfied; they were not complaining... nor was their demeanor denoting any unwillingness. Anything aside from their very best would not be tolerated. First, they were expected to represent their village in five months time. Second, they were soldiers, for all intents and purposes and while they were not at war, a fourth war could be sparked in the blink of an eye; third, Kurenai was bound to be betting on them in the Chunin Exams, a tradition of sorts amid the Jonin with participating teams. Granted, making money was not as much in her interest as it was showing them just how much of a good teacher she was. She was a rookie compared to Kakashi, Gai and Asuma... yet she would show them what sh and her team were made of.

A.N.: And done; while it took me more than I first thought, I also had matters to attend to in the Embassy and college stuff. Granted, I also procrastinated some, an issue that I have been trying to fix for years. I already have up until chapter 10 outlined, meaning I have a general idea about where the story is going. I try to shed some light between the way characters think, as a manner of establishing them. That will more likely than not become less of an 'issue' in future chapters as the cast is presented after the big change that made the plot deviate from canon. On that note, I thank you all for reading; have a good one and see you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Apologies for the last chapter; I became aware of the fact that the formatting _sucked, _meaning I will have to look into formatting before posting the next chapter. Oh joy. As such I tried to frantically remove it to fix it but failed to see that changes could take thirty minutes to take effect. Meaning, I wasted thirteen minutes. Regardless, I am beginning to type this chapter after trying to fix the second. The chapters are kind of outlined as things stand, albeit a tad too roughly. I'll still be trying to write and review it over the course of an extended period of time, otherwise mistakes and snap decisions may make the story turn out not as I envision it.

I have looked into formatting and hope having saved the document in .docx format helped. I googled the formatting issue I had and it was advisable to save it in such format. Doesn't hurt to give it a shot, I suppose. My apologies for having made a mess. If it works, I will be updating the last two chapters in order to try to fix them. No content will be changed, of course, unless someone points a flaw out in the man time.

**Day after Team meeting**

Naruto was disappointed; he could tell Hinata and Shino were so too. Kurenai just seemed amused, which was to be expected. She had known what they would be doing from the get go. What were they doing as things stood, one might ask? Cleaning an abandoned house of its belongings. It was every bit as gruesome as one might think because the house had apparently been empty for over a decade. Ownership after the previous owned passed away had never been cleared so the family members never really bothered with it until a week ago. It baffled Naruto, how such a good house could have fallen beneath the notice of anyone, but then again he lived in a crappy apartment.

"Well done." Kurenai called out as Shino and Naruto took the last piece of furniture, a large wardrobe, out; Shino was visibly tired at this point, but Naruto was as full of energy as ever. He had offered to use his Kage Bunshin as manpower, but Kurenai had forbidden it due to the real nature of D Ranks "We should be able to report back in to both the clients and Hokage-sama and to lunch before training. As I told you before, I have ideas for you already. All I ask you is to hear me out before refusing. We'll discuss it over lunch."

Her team nodded, causing Kurenai's lips to twitch into an almost smile; her team was probably giving her the least trouble out of all the rookies. He knew Kiba to be boisterous and Sakura to dislike getting dirty, so Kakashi probably had his hands full as things stood. Shikamaru was lazy and Ino had the same issues as Sakura, albeit to a lesser extent. Only one level-headed person on each one of their teams. She had three; while that didn't mean her team would be victorious, it meant that the next few weeks were going to be easier for her than they would be for Asuma and Kakashi. She smiled as she thought about the former Jonin. As much as she disliked slackers, she did have a soft spot for the bearded Jonin, although she would never admit so out loud.

"Say, Kurenai-sensei..." Naruto said, frowning "... are Genin allowed to take solo D ranks? I was thinking about beginning to save money for a new apartment and to get better equipment."

Naruto made a vague gesture towards his clothes, which had begun showing an alarming amount of worn ever since he had begun taking Kage Bunshin training to heart... which admittedly had been mere days ago. It was insane.

"Not unheard of, but you should keep in mind that you can't do more than a few extra." Kurenai said, much to Naruto's chagrin "Other teams need to do those missions, after all... and there are more Genin than you my perceive."

Naruto nodded somberly and filed it away for later, knowing that he was better off discussing these matters with Hokage-sa... Hiruzen-sama. He was actually quite happy regarding that little development and the tension in his shoulders, ever present, faded away slightly, something everyone in his team took notice of. He was by far the easiest one to read among them all; Kurenai was a Jonin, recently promoted or not. Shino hailed from the Aburame Clan, a clan that taught their children to control their movements and body language since they were able to walk. Hinata always had a sense of calm about her, although those perceptive enough were capable of noticing the fact that such calm was forced due to the rigidness inherent to her movements ad expressions at times. Regardless of the fact that they noticed it, they commented not, each one for their own reasons. Kurenai refrained from doing so to avoid having Naruto clam up; Shino assumed it was due to the fact that he would be able to better his financial situation; Hinata thought nothing about it.

The walk towards the Hokage Tower was uneventful as usual, although Naruto was forced to endure the constant glares and disdainful whispers due to refraining from asking to use his preferred shortcuts; people had almost forgotten he existed. He had been so close... alas, it was not meant to be. He was meant to walk with his team whether he liked it or not. They knew the reason behind them anyways, so they did not take notice of it. Kurenai was actually glaring back, as if daring them to do anything. He didn't need any of that; what he needed was to slowly accept what he had told himself days ago, when he had realized they would never allow him to become Hokage. As such he disregarded their distrustful gazes, their whispers and their general demeanor.

Once they arrived, they went straight to the mission lobby; Iruka happened to be there, filling paperwork in and chatting with one of his colleagues. As soon as he saw Naruto, he tensed up. There was so much he wished to tell Naruto... yet he felt like it would not matter. He had once seen the Will of Fire shine brightly within him. Now, he was no longer certain; his path was one hard to see, moreso for Iruka, who was not that experienced as things stood.

"Team 8 reporting a successful mission, Iruka-san." Kurenai said, mirth evident in her tone as she handed a scroll to Iruka; her team was seemingly sulking for a few seconds before they snapped back to attention "The task was performed to the client's satisfaction."

Iruka nodded, stamped the scroll he had just been handed over after reading it and handed four payslips to Kurenai, who gave one to each one of her team members. The three bowed to their sensei and prepared to leave. Kurenai could tell Iruka's gaze was lingering on Naruto still but she didn't comment. If the Chunin wanted to speak up, he would do so. She was aware of the source of discomfort, as she had heard that her soon-to-be student had been paraded in the village in a manner not dissimilar to that reserved for prisoners of war. Iruka had sadly been unable to do anything and Kurenai knew he did care for her blonde student.

"Kurenai-sensei, what is the deal with these missions?" Naruto asked after they left the lobby "They are not hard or anything, but it feels like a waste for Shinobi to do this kind of thing."

"They are meant to teach you several important lessons before you progress towards our real line of work." Kurenai said, not upset at all by his question nor his remark "They teach you about relying on your comrades, about determining who does what, strategical planning... there's so much more to it that it is not even funny. And we only realize all this when... yes, when, not if... a mission goes South, when you have to takes shots in the dark and act on an unknown territory and situation. Remember that. Everything you will be doing, be it what it may, while under me will have a reason to be."

Naruto nodded, not saying anything else on the matter; yet Kurenai had noticed it, the way his eyes had dimmed as soon as she mentioned things going south. Maybe she had been a bit too passionate in her speech? It did not matter... they needed to hear it and to know what was what and that what they would be doing had the potential to make a difference in the future.

"I concur." Shino said in his trademark monotone "The fact that we are going through a learning process is to be expected. Our positions are barely above those of Academy students, which is to say, civilians. It also stimulates the local economy and keeps money flowing through the village at all times. Even on a crisis, there will never never complete stagnation, for a while. There are also bound to be measures in place to make sure the economy does not really sink."

Kurenai nodded appreciatively and left it at that; they were bound to lean about it once they on the fly as they move up in their careers. That happened to most people; she would need to make sure Naruto was properly educated on the subject herself, probably, as he had no family. Her musings were cut short as they left the building.

"Doesn't matter." Naruto said idly "I will be getting a quick lunch and a quick training session in before we meet. Oh right... where are we supposed to meet again?"

"Training ground thirty seven." Kurenai answered, prompting the blonde to disappear amid the crowd with practiced ease, heading towards a nearby alley; maybe she would put him in charge of information gathering "You two are dismissed for now. Take some time to freshen up and to have lunch. I will see you in roughly one hour and a half."

The remaining two members of Team 8 nodded and left towards their respective clan compounds; they did indeed want to freshen up, as they had worked far more of a sweat than their blonde teammate had. It was simply amazing, how much energy to burn he had. And he was a workaholic of sorts, meaning they would be left behind if they did not kick their asses into gear, something they had discussed the previous day. While they would have discussed about doing so in less crass terms under normal circumstances, doing so in a manner that Naruto would have done had seemed appropriate for some reason.

**After lunch**

When his teammates arrived to the training field, looking far better, Naruto was still at it; he had grabbed a quick lunch (take away; they immediately noticed the box nearby) and had pretty much resumed his brawls against two clones. His move repertoire was still quite limited but he would get there. The progress he had attained in the past two days pertaining Taijutsu was enormous when compared to the near stagnancy of having no regular sparring partner. They were also expected to stick to a specific style in Academy spars, as well as to avoid certain types of blows, so those were not really spars in his book. They were basically a joke to someone who actually wanted to train and get somewhere.

"Why do you train so hard?" Shino asked after an awkward pause "Surely you realize you are already stronger than what the norm for a Genin is."

Naruto aid nothing for a few seconds; he kept at it. Then, suddenly, he delivered two swift blows to his clones, dispelling them. He then turned to Shino, his expression unreadable. Yet before he could answer, Kurenai arrived to the scene, which caused both teammates to nod almost imperceptibly towards one another; they would have this conversation some other time.

"I already have an inkling about what I will be telling you to work on for the first phase of our training." Kurenai said without preamble "I want you to understand and value teamwork, but there will be times when you will need to work solo. You will probably need teamwork to get through the Chunin Exams. However, ff you make it to Chunin, you will need to be ready to lead and to be better than mere Genin at fighting. I expect you to learn about what it takes to be a Chunin and to be able to fight your way out of any hazardous situation. That will require you to learn things outside your comfort zone at times. I will expect Shino to be proficient at Taijutsu, Hinata at other styles aside from the Juken and Naruto at a bit of everything. Any questions?"

"Why does Naruto-san need to know 'a bit about everything'?" Hinata asked after a short pause; Shino nodded, as to support Hinata in this matter, something both Kurenai and Naruto took notice of.

"Naruto has no Clan, meaning he has nothing 'default', to put it bluntly. He does not have the same information pertaining the Ninja Arts than you and Shino have." Kurenai explained "I want him to be at least vaguely aware of what his choices might be before having him pick a specialization, if any. You have your Juken, Shino has his Clan's Hidden Jutsu. Shinobi not belonging to a Clan either pick a specialization early on, like I have, or study a bit of everything and become well-rounded Shinobi. The latter are quite a rarity due to the effort it actually takes. Take Iruka-san and Mizuki-san, for example. Mizuki-san is an expert in Bukijutsu... while Iruka-san has significant knowledge about more subjects than those you may have perceived."

Not even Shino and Hinata concealed their surprise at this point; _Iruka-sensei_? The one thing they believed he had was a mastery over the theory of what it took to be a Shinobi. It was simply too hard to imagine Iruka-sensei knowing more than he let on, less so about a bit of _everything_. It simply sounded too out of this world to be true. Yet they had no reason to disbelieve Kurenai. As such, they said nothing and simply allowed the fact to sink in.

"That does not matter right now." Kurenai said after nearly a minute "You need to get working. Every single minute matters as of now. I want nothing short of your best, as close to perfection as possible. Whatever made Hokage-sama decide that rookie teams needed to be ready for the Chunin Exams was, it is going to leave ripples in coming years. I am not aware if he want to wipe out the inherent competition for clients, if he means to use it as a show of power, if it is because most Clan Heirs happen to be in this year's rookie batch. I do not know and I shouldn't even be discussing it with you. But it might be for one of these reasons, all of them or none. And I do not intend to fail this assignment. If any of you gives anything other than their absolute best, you will be unceremoniously sent back to the Academy for at least three more years. You have been warned. With that said, let's begin!"

**Two weeks later**

It had been better than Naruto had anticipated; he had been expecting something long the lines of the Academy, not the hands-on approach Kurenai-sensei seemed to favor. His teammates were similarly pleased, he could tell; they had gotten stronger and more aware with the near-personal level training Kurenai had given them. Naruto had been taught several diversionary tactics meant to b used in tandem with his Clone and a bit more Bukijutsu, as his was barely average. That included traps, which went great when one considered his potential with the Kage Bunshin.

Shino had begun building his speed and stamina up, as instructed by Kurenai; he was supposed to begin working on an evasion-oriented Taijutsu style, for when fighting at a distance was not an option. The goal of such move was to allow Shino himself and his Kikaichu to work in tandem towards exhausting his enemies in such scenario.

Hinata took to her style with no complaints, which would not be a reality had she tried to teach another style to any other Hyuga, Kurenai felt; the girl was, to put it bluntly, a natural. She was not physically strong, but she made up for it with her flexibility and precision. If she began doing what Kurenai had been planning all along, which was to combine the main principle of the Juken along with the katas from other styles, she would be a more unpredictable foe. Maybe she would surprise her and even do something entirely different.

All in all, they were finally at ease around Naruto and seemed to truly accept him. Kurenai had feared they would not work well due to Naruto revealing his status as a Jinchuriki. She had expected this to fail before it set off but here Naruto was, proving her wrong. Maybe she should begin getting used to it, as she had heard Naruto had the habit of surprising people in all sorts of ways, his change still managing to do so until this day.

"You did a good job for the past week." Kurenai said "I will be expecting you to develop the subjects I told you about in your personal time, at your own pace, however. I will be needing our training sessions to impart new knowledge on you. You will need to know what to work on, which subjects to pick and so on. I am trusting you. Take today off. I will be expecting you to have a schedule for your own training tomorrow."

Her Genin nodded, bowed to her in almost unison and left; she had made it clear that she would expect them to respect her and to show it, something they had made sure to do. They all had something to prove and they needed to grow stronger to do so. The fact that they could end up as being more than Genin at the end of it was just a bonus.

**Next day, 5:30 am**

Naruto was at it again, although not doing the brawls had usually done. He was instead working on his physique. He was, as such, doing squats, push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups and the occasional few laps around the clearing to give his arms a degree of rest. Even he looked winded at this point, although he also felt oddly energetic. It was an odd but pleasing sensation, one he could not get enough of. As such, he kept picking up the pace. Faster. More. Less time needed.

Needless to say, once he calmed down, some two odd hours later, and sat down to catch his breath, he felt more tired than he ever remembered feeling. He groaned and tried to get up, only to find he couldn't. Literally. That, in turn, made him panic. He unleashed a torrent of profanities that made his teammates, who were approaching, pause; Hinata blushed neon red, something she had not done for only the gods knew how long. Even Shino looked a bit flustered at the colorful tirade Naruto was relentlessly unleashing, mostly at himself. The blonde was, of course, completely oblivious to the fact that his teammates were there, as was his Sensei.

"As much fun as it is watching you curse at yourself in such creative ways..." Kurenai's voice rang out, her mirth evident; that made Naruto promptly pipe down, which caused Hinata to giggle and even Shino to let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle "... we need to get started, so why don't you get up and tell us what has gotten you in such a foul mood?"

"I can't." Naruto said after a few seconds.

"Come again?" Kurenai asked, perplexed.

"I can't move my legs." he said as if he hadn't been freaking out about it for the last three or so minutes "This never happened whenever I trained before."

Kurenai blinked once... twice... then sighed. She had been expecting this to happen at some point; Naruto was obsessed with training, so it had been a matter of 'when', not 'if'.

"Let that be a lesson." she said "Training hard is admirable, but training too hard might lead to this. Needless to say, we will have to do today's mission without Naruto after dropping him off at the hospital. That means no training, either."

Naruto sighed, resigned to his fate, and nodded. Maybe he could indeed ton it down a bit; he had felt amazing while pushing his body, though. Maybe he could find a balance between that and not over-training. As long as he did not push himself as hard, he would probably be fine.

"Understood, Sensei." Naruto said, tilting his head slightly, as he could not bow at the moment due to his predicament; he then took a scroll from his tool pouch, the only one that seemed to be there "I have written my training schedule down on a scroll, like you asked. Can I be excused?"

Kurenai took the scroll from him and nodded, puzzled. Naruto nodded deferentially once again before doing a sign she recognized. She chuckled as the one of the three clones he summoned used Henge to turn into a stretcher. Then, the other two proceeded to deposit their creator there and to carry him off as Naruto waved. The way the blonde used such taxing Technique for such mundane tasks would spread soon. That meant she would need to pick the pace up, otherwise her colleagues would put their own teams through the gutter to make sure they kept up. She wanted her team to put on the best show possible, as many had doubted the Sandaime's decision regarding promoting her due to her rather accentuated focus on Genjutsu. That and the fact that she was a woman, she thought; most of her colleagues were male. She sighed as she turned to the other two members of her team; maybe she would not do a mission today and give them more to work with. She could tell that they felt like they were still lagging behind Naruto...

**Two hours later**

Naruto sighed as he asked to be allowed out of the hospital; he had already healed even though he had been told it could take days without treatment to get better. Needless to say, he had been waiting for treatment, only to realize he was slowly but surely recovering. As such, he had taken to wondering what he should be doing, using mostly the last two weeks and the results from his Genin Exam as a reference. From what he had gathered, his Chakra Control was sub-par. That meant that, along with his physical conditioning, were the most important things he needed to work on at the moment. He was resilient and could train the whole day, sure, but he wanted more strength to make sure he could pack enough punch whenever he got close and personal.

That meant he would need to split his attention, as his training schedule stressed; he would be dedicating half of his training time in the morning to physical conditioning and the other half to Chakra control exercises (which he intended to consult Hiruzen-sama on). After lunch, he would spar against two Clones as usual; after that came team training, so that part depends on whatever Kurenai-sensei decided to have them work on. His musings were cut short as the doctor who had been examining him disbelievingly discharged him; good. He could go to Hiruzen-sama's office via his own way. He still felt a bit stiff but he would walk it off. He left the building without a care in the world, oblivious to the fact that the receptionist, who saw him arriving on a stretcher and had heard of the damage he had suffered. She shrugged it off soon after, assuming he had been treated and left it at that.

Naruto took to the nearest alley and headed towards the Hokage Tower; the walk there was without incidents as usual, as few people used the alleys for whatever stupid reason. They made his trips far shorter, he did not need to deal with dumb glares and he got to do some stunts while traveling. A win-win-win, in his book.

His inner musings were cut short as he arrived to his destination, which prompted him to calm down as much as he feasibly could; he went by without speaking with the receptionist, straight towards Hiruzen's office. There was no ANBU by the entrance, so he proceeded to knock on the door, his answer being an energetic 'Come in.'.

"Hello, Hokage-sama." Naruto greeted, smiling "I was wondering if could speak with you for a moment.."

Hiruzen made an odd gesture and looked intently at Naruto; then, after a few seconds, he smiled. He looked much younger than he usually did whenever he smiled, Naruto noticed. Then again he needed to be serious most of the time. He DID represent the village at all times, after all.

"We are alone now, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said "What is on your mind?"

"I had to create a training schedule to follow throughout the weak and I realized I was lagging behind with Chakra control." he said, looking visibly embarrassed "I was hoping you'd be able to help me with this, since I kind of overdid it this morning and was unable to tag along with my team."

Hiruzen chuckled, shaking his finger in mock accusation.

"Are you sure you are not shirking your duties to your team and sensei?" he asked, mirth making it more than clear that he was not serious "So soon after becoming a Genin, too!"

Naruto chuckled; he had forgotten Hiruzen-sama could have such a genial disposition. There had been a lot he had forgotten, apparently... then again he wanted to get somewhere with his career. That meant he had began training more seriously, which had, in turn, led to him becoming more distant. Hiruzen had been on e of the few people he had considered precious, along with the Ichiraku family and Iruka, at one point. Now, that list had dwindled. Maybe he should consider remaking his ties with them, if anything because he realized he needed more than training and missions in his life. He had thought about what a life of commitment as a Shinobi would be like and he found himself feeling disgruntled at the idea, as he would either be doing missions or training. He had already become a Genin, so maybe he could take it slightly more easy... or at least find time to speak with the Ichirakus, Hiruzen-sama and Iruka-sensei more often.

"I am sure, Hiruzen-sama" Naruto said, his eyes being closer to what they had once been, much to Hiruzen's delight "You know I like having money and there's no way I would miss a training session out of the blue. I am just a fast healer, apparently. I can't believe I am still easily surprised, but then again they told me the recovery was supposed to take like four days."

"You never cease to amaze me, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said, admiration clear in his tone "That means your physical strength can grow faster than the average too, of course. But it does not matter. I could use a break anyways, so follow me."

**Fifteen minutes later**

Hiruzen had taken Naruto to the nearest training ground, not bothered by the fact that people were openly gaping at the fact that he was walking around the village with Naruto, of all people. It was not as common s one might think for them to see the Sandaime around the village and it was equally rare for them to see Naruto, so the sight of both together was more odd than one might initially perceive.

"You are correct in one regard, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said once he had made sure there were none aside from his ANBU around; said ANBU had also established a security perimeter to give them a degree of privacy "That stems from the fact that your Chakra reserves are vast compared to normal Shinobi, let alone a Genin. This exercise should be easier for you to perform when compared to the leaf sticking exercise you learned at the Academy. It requires more Chakra, after all."

Hiruzen calmly walked towards a nearby tree and walked up the tree itself, which caused Naruto's jaw to hang open; he had heard about this at the Academy but had dismissed it as a stupid rumor. He had a suspicion about what Hiruzen-sama was doing but he needed to be sure.

"I am basically sticking to the tree by focusing Chakra through the soles of my feet and my sandals." Hiruzen explained "That by itself is challenging, but you also need to reinforce your leg and back muscles in order to help the body supposed the weight accordingly... otherwise you may find it challenging to remain attached to the tree without ripping your muscles."

Naruto was still shocked but approached the tree and gave it a try... and was promptly sent flying, causing Hiruzen to actually laugh.

"You're using far too much Chakra, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen chided "Well, I will leave you to it. It may not look like it but the soles are among the hardest parts of the body through which one can mold Chakra through. Once you have shown to me that you have mastered this exercise, I will teach you one, maybe two new things to work with."

With that said, Hiruzen calmly descended from the tree and approached Naruto, giving him a smile and a pat on the shoulder; while he would have liked to spend more time with the blonde, the more he stayed here, the more the work piled up and the more delayed things got. Maybe he should begin looking for someone trustworthy enough to help him sort the paperwork...

"Take care, Hiruzen-sama." Naruto said, smiling sadly; he had enjoyed his short time with the Hokage, which strengthened his will to repair his relationship with his precious people "I will master this before you know it!"

"I do not doubt you will, my boy." Hiruzen said "I know you will be ready for the Chunin exams when the time comes."

Naruto nodded, looked more determined than ever; that was right. Kurenai-sensei had said that she had been told by Hiruzen-sama that they would need to be ready for the next exams, something apparently unprecedented. He would make his team and his precious people proud, dammit. He would be the best Shinobi he could be and stand by his precious people and assist them with their dreams. Protecting the village was already his duty as it was anyways and maybe he would be considered worthy enough of being Hiruzen-giji's guard if he did things right. One thing he did want was to do the missions he had dreamed of when he had entered the Academy.

Feeling more determined than he had in a while, Naruto eyed the tree Hiruzen-giji had used to show him what he needed to learn to improve his Chakra control and proceeded to begin trying to climb it, using a bit less Chakra than last time. Yet again, he was blasted off the tree but he got up all the same. He would tone it down, little by little and get through with mastering this exercise before Hiruzen-giji knew it...

**Next morning, 5 am**

Naruto was already at it once his teammates arrived to the scene; he was practicing something they already knew, only with a gruesome twist. Whenever he fell down from the tree he was struggling to climb, there were two Clones waiting for him. Whenever he fell, the Clones attacked him, forcing him to defend himself before attempting to climb back up. They were once again rendered speechless by their teammate, who seemed hellbent on finding ways of killing himself by training. They had been tipped off by Kurenai that he might be making an appearance in this precise spot at this time. Yet it appeared that he had been at it for some time now.

"Good morning, Naruto-san." Hinata said, taking in the bruised form of her teammate "Me and Shino-san would like to join you from now on, if you do not mind."

Naruto paused before dispelling his clones; he had not expected them to make a move of the likes of this but then again he was not good at reading people and least of all people who could conceal their emotions like they could. Regardless, Naruto could see the merits of training with actual people, moreso his teammates. They would need to know each other's styles later on. As such, he nodded and spoke up.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked, puzzled "My training routine's clearly different than both of yours."

"We discussed this yesterday and were looking more towards actually training together, as a team, against opponents." Shino said "We should be performing our first C Rank soon, if we are expected to be ready for the Chunin exams. We will not be normal Shinobi, that much is clear."

"We need to make sure all of us are as close in strength as possible." Hinata said "No weak links within the team means no holes for enemies to exploit.. I intend to do what most Hyuga do not as things stand, that being learning about Ninjutsu and Genjutsu."

Naruto nodded, deeming it to make sense; they would be competing with their ex-classmates, who were bound to be training as hard them or harder. They needed to get used to working together, to know each other's flaws... and to cover for them. He would probably be their plan B, since he could spam a veritable army. Hinata to strike a balance between his own bold plans and Shino's col, hard logic. Yes, even Naruto could see it. It was simply logic. Maybe he would even gain insight on how Clans worked, since that was not really covered at the Academy due to being something Genin were meant to pick on as time went by and as they mingled with their colleagues. Maybe one of them would turn to be the Hokage one day. He almost chuckled.

"Well, how should we begin?" Naruto asked "I've trained solo since the beginning."

And the discussion went on from there; when they realized they had gotten nothing done, nearly three hours had passed, something that gave Naruto some pause. Regardless of the restlessness, he felt oddly at ease. Maybe it was because he had not spoken this much with someone else since he had become more dedicated. It didn't really matter; they had discussed ideas for training regimes and the ideas they had brought to the table were actually pretty good. Simulating bandit camps, escort missions, pursuit training... simply put, the bulk of it would be having Naruto use Kage Bunshin and having the resulting clones perform a different plethora of roles to suit their needs. Naruto could work with it, as it was what he did on a daily basis and had more than enough Chakra to spare.

"We'll begin tomorrow." Naruto said, frowning "I was under the impression we were supposed to train together, not just talk about it."

His teammates could tell he was not serious regardless of the frown; if he was, his body language would not be as relaxed. Naruto was indeed almost an open book for them. Key word there, almost; he had offered strange insights during their discussion, which meant that there was more to the blonde than what they had initially thought. Tomorrow's session would tell both of them if this would pay off...

**Following day, 5 am**

When they arrived, Naruto was already there once more, although he appeared to e meditating; they could see him twitch and shake slightly, which meant he was not really good at staying still, which was not really surprising. Hinata had already begun thinking about tips to give her blonde teammate over his brawler-like Taijutsu style and Shino about the reckless approaches he took. He didn't seem to notice them, which prompted Shino to cough loudly. Naruto opened his eyes and, once he noticed them, got up, grimacing all the while. It was quite clear he was not used to sitting in such manner and being still for overly long periods of time.

"I think we should teach you how to meditate first and foremost." Hinata commented, watching him trying to work out the cramps on his legs "It is easier if you stretch before and after, too."

Naruto nodded and jumped a few times, as to make sure he was good to go before eyeing them inquisitively. They in turn shrugged, not sure which to do themselves. Naruto thus took initiative and beckoned them to follow him as he began to jog, prompting them to mutely follow him. After a couple of laps, he picked the pace up and so did them. Needless to say, they became aware just how ahead of them he was in terms of endurance that morning; the training field's perimeter was something between one hundred and one hundred and twenty meters and the blonde just kept going. Shino had completed twenty five laps at the accelerated pace before stopping; Hinata, thirty two. The blonde was still going. And he wouldn't stop any time soon, so Shino spoke up.

"I think we should move on to the next part." Shino said, his neutral voice and posture not denoting how surprised he was that Naruto was not even sweating.

Naruto, of course, stopped and eyed Shino, frowning in confusion.

"But I still have thirty seven laps to go." Naruto said, perplexed-

"... how many do you usually do?" Hinata asked, eyebrows raised.

"I usually do between 120 and 150 laps." he said "Since you are here, I was going to do one hundred to save time."

Yes, they would need time to adjust to this insane routine of him; that much they had known... but to see just how much was almost inconceivable. He had managed to do more laps than both of them combined and he was not even winded while they were ready to take a break. They were both glad he was lacing in other areas, because otherwise he might have deemed training with them a waste of time. They were already surprised he was holding back on following his routine in order to train with them as it was.

"Welp." the blonde said "What kind of scenario should we play first?"

"Escort mission?" Hinata asked "Those are among the more common C rank missions, as merchants and caravans often need an armed escort to fend regular bandits off. Formations and contingency plans should be coded, too, so we can execute them as soon as possible."

"Indeed." Shino said, nodding in approval "We should also make sure we establish a leader to give orders between us in case we are separated from Kurenai-sensei."

"Shino." Naruto and Hinata said at the same time, causing said boy to raise his eyebrows.

"Why me?" he finally asked "I am pretty sure both of you are as suitable for this role as I am."

"You're not hotheaded like I am." Naruto said easily "I rush into things and make a lot of mistakes before getting things right. I can't lead you into a dangerous situation when my mistakes may cause you to be injured, captured or killed."

"I concur." Hinata said just as easily "I am prone to hesitating in crucial moments, something I am trying to overcome. That may happen in a mission where certainty and logic are needed. That is where you come in, Shino-san."

Shino nodded in acceptance and left it at that; he was pleased they were able to recognize his processing capabilities and dissect their own weaknesses whilst delegating responsibilities. Most of their colleagues at the Academy would have probably deemed themselves to be the best leaders and fought for it or hampered the efficiency of the team. Regardless, Naruto, of all people, was being quite rational about it. It was no small secret Naruto had once been boisterous and prone to episodes of deeming himself to be more than what he had actually been. The visible changes that had taken place one odd year and a half back had apparently made the blonde mature some, which was good. Shino was not only intending to participate in the upcoming Chunin Exam; he was going to aim for victory. If he could help it, he and his team would take it by storm and win. If they wanted him to be the leader, he would do so with the best of his capabilities... and that meant handling their training sessions and their content as well.

"Then I suggest us to begin looking and using different training grounds," he droned "We will not always have missions in the same type of terrain and getting used to fighting near large bodies of water, mountainous terrain and so on I within our best interests. Pursuit and apprehension training in case our targets escape, being undercover among civilians... we will need to use our early mornings to cover these. And we will need to notify Kurenai-sensei too, so she can either stir us in another direction, give us ides for complimentary subjects we should train or evaluate what we have learned in order to ascertain if it was done so in an adequate manner."

"You've given this some thought." Naruto said, grinning "This is why you should be our leader... you plan ahead, unlike me. Hinata does as well, but probably not as well as you do... no offense."

"None taken." she said.

"Very well." their newly appointed team leader said "I will be writing down a training plan with the subjects I deem to be the best for us to train on our own, discuss it with you, show it to Kurenai-sensei so she can evaluate it and offer input, then we begin."

Both Naruto and Hinata nodded as the latter got up, having used the last few minutes to get some rest before they resumed their training session. All of them were quite satisfied with the results yielded so far, as it was more than mere laps, what they had done. They had a leader and a plan in the making now. They would also be stepping things up soon enough, if what Kurenai-sensei had said was to be believed. The one thing they had to do not was to commit to whatever plan they agreed on. They would win the exams, even if for their individualistic goals. Naruto wished to prove his strength... Hinata, to show her family she had changed... and Shino, his superior tactics and planning capabilities. They would succeed, no matter what.

**End of chapter III**

AN: And another chapter. I hope any potential people reading this have managed to stay healthy thus far and that you will do so in the future. The chapter was as lacking in action as the last one was but hopefully, the next chapter will be somewhat better, action-wise.

I appreciate any reviews and advice regarding formatting if this one fails. Remember, stay healthy, do not leave home unless you really need to and all that whatnot. I hope you all have a pleasant day and see you next time!


	4. Chapter 4

AN: It would appear I was not as clear as I had thought I had been with Naruto's Clone training, so I will address it here.

Naruto is not aware of such training method here, for one; two, there will be a trick to it, which was actually going to be spoken of this chapter for plot reasons; third and last, the Clone was using the moves the original had come up with, meaning he was still learning more anyways, at a somewhat faster pace, although not at a significantly faster one (such as double or triple the normal pace). My apologies if that was not clear. Naruto essentially sparred clones as his training because he had lacked consistent sparring partners and had disregarded the ones at the Academy as playground fights, ones with a st of rules that were not adequate for a soldier in-training.. I reread previous chapters to make sure I had made that clear and stumbled across a small tidbit I overlooked on the very first chapter. Needless to say, I corrected it and apologize for the inconvenience. I am still struggling with the mammoth task of formatting of the text too, which is becoming increasingly more aggravating. I'll get there... I hope. I will use the same example I used in the message I sent the reviewer who made me aware that there might have been a misunderstanding. This is the method Naruto has been using thus far.

At the beginning of a training session, Naruto makes two clones, A and B; should clone B be destroyed, the one that takes its place is not another clone B, but rather clone C. This clone C would have the moves the original came up with in the sparring session up until the destruction of clone B. While not as fast as mass Clone training in the traditional sense, it still allowed Naruto to spar constantly, something he had lacked at the point at which he learned the Kage Bunshin. I hope any doubts have thus been cleared. With that of the way, on with the show!

Chapter IV

It had been rough, but Kurenai was pleased to see that they had taken her warning seriously; there were no words that could describe how satisfied Kurenai was with her team after a month. Their routine had been simple but effective: grab a mission in the morning, eat lunch as quickly as they feasibly could and train. The team had fallen into the routine without a hitch, although Hinata and Shino were visibly tired when the time for the morning briefing arrived, which was to be expected. They didn't have nearly as much energy to burn as their blonde teammate had. Their sessions were yielding results, however; they already have five plans meant to be used for a plethora of scenarios, with and without hostiles, and were working on formations (those were harder due to the fact that Konoha already had its set, one born from the three Shinobi Wars, so it was hard for three Genin to come up with something that could top THAT).

Kurenai had been surprised her Genin were still meeting before the briefing after one week, let alone the one month and two weeks that had elapsed since then; Shino and Hinata had been bordering collapse for the first few days and their usually precise, controlled movements had had a stiffness to them. While their movements were still not as controlled as they had once been, they were on the brink of achieving so. She was still surprised by what Shino, Hinata and even Naruto brought to the table at times; their discussions were also making Naruto somewhat more aware of the workings of the village, lessons he had missed due to being a poor student at the time. Then again, he wouldn't have learned everything; few ever did so when it came to the workings of the village, such as having a bank account, owning property, starting a business... those were usually taught by one's family.

They had finished their fundamental training the day before and Kurenai was pleased to note that their progress showed; they were better in general as a team, more relaxed around one another. Shino had become their leader, an accepted role between them all, and had taken it to heart. Whenever there was a problem, they discussed it and he laid it out for her with the precision and detail they had all learned to expect from him; Hinata was the second 'man', so to say, and often offered input on their discussions and plans; Naruto was mostly quiet but offered his input at key times when a more unorthodox approach was needed, something they had come to appreciate when they had the ill fortune of requiring to capture Tora. The feline was too smart for its own good...

Hinata now had a solid grasp on another Taijutsu style, something that would help should they need to go undercover; an unmarked Hyuga going around was a magnet for trouble, so she was bound to spend quite some time hiding the Clan she belonged to. She had shown a great work ethic and an even greater wish to understand and work with her teammates, which was a welcome surprise. Then again they were in this together and her life could well depends on her squad members one day, so it could merely be to bolster her chances of surviving out there. She was becoming harder for Kurenai to read as time went by.

Shino had taken to physical training like a duck to water; not only was he taller than his teammates, which gave him a longer reach, but his lean build allowed him to dodge and swerve better than one would think for an Aburame to be capable of. Between an evasive Taijutsu style and specific training to build speed up, the Aburame had been quite busy for the last month and a half. Kurenai had also begun teaching him a bit about Genjutsu and he had taken to it with no complaints, something he was sure many others would have done due to the disregard many seemed to have over her chosen Art.

Naruto was, much to the annoyance of his teammates, their powerhouse, something Kurenai felt guilty of regardless of the fact that the blonde did most of his training solo. Even with his sessions with Shino and Hinata, he managed to work solo still, much to their shock and disbelief. Kurenai had opted to teach him about a support set of skills to try to avoid having him become too strong when compared to his teammates. Thus had Naruto focused on diversionary tactics and trap-making skills, along with some light Bukijutsu training. She had only succeeded partially; he had kept up with his Kage Bunshin training and had begun working on his Chakra Control, something that stemmed from the fact that his teammates had already stated to have mastered the Surface Clinging Technique, which they had explained to him in more details and given him tips on; she did not know where he had picked it up but didn't raise much of a fuss over it. The blonde was, for the lack of a better term, relentless. He found ways to train in the missions and approached most things as he would a training exercise. Capture Tora missions? Pursuit and apprehension training. Painting fences and weeding gardens? Alternative Taijutsu practice (he somehow found ways of using the unorthodox moves he came up with while doing those, although accidents were prone to happen still). Helping people move furniture or other large items? Physical training. It was insane and a bit worrying; it was akin to an obsession and Kurenai did not know how to feel nor what to do about it.

With their preliminary training out of the way and a somewhat fixed schedule now, Team 8 had become akin to a well-oiled machine. They were expected to be strong individually, stronger as a team and yet stronger in the future. They and the other rookies were meant to be the stars if the upcoming Chunin Exams. If they did not make the cut, not only would the Genins be getting penalized, but so would the Jonin in charge. It was a long term mission, one the Sandaime had insisted to be quite urgent and having implications on an international economical level. The last loyal Uchiha was among the contestants as well, which meant they had to be strong. Kakashi and his team would be under heavy scrutiny for that reason. The man was actually training once more, something he hadn't done since before the Kyuubi Attack, twelve years ago. That told everyone else aware of their mission that he was dead serious. There was also the fact that it gave the man something to focus on as opposed to wasting away in front of the monument. He had actually been pissed that he had not been given Naruto to train and asked Kurenai to take care of Naruto for him, much to her shock. She had not asked why, as she had her own suspicions, and had assured she would teach and train him with the best of her ability.

They had been given today off, as all involved Jonin had been asked to give a report on the performance of the teams today, as well as to address potential issues and manners through which they could fix them. Shino and Hinata were using it to rest, something they had stated to need; Naruto had followed his routine as he usually did, coupled with elements he had acquired from the training he had gone through. Aside from the other elements of supplementary training, he had been given a crash course on information gathering and asked to periodically present ideas and methods to Kurenai. His usage of Kage Bunshin as messengers had been flawed due to their low durability and the implication their destruction would carry under normal circumstances, so he had stopped suggesting ideas revolving around those. He had, however, become acquainted with normal disguising methods (non Henge), on recognizing accents, on mimicking said accents and on making backgrounds up. He was uncannily good at improvising and making characters come to life. Aside from that, he was the one his team turned to whenever they were asked to come up with a plan B for a hypothetical scenario or a more alternative/creative approach to a given problem/mission scenario. He still managed to amaze his teammates and sensei whenever he brought surprising questions and ideas to the table.

He was currently on his way to meet Hiruzen-sama, who had sent for him, for some reason or another; he had not spoken to him much for the past month due to being busy, but he was sure he would understand. He was striving to be the best Shinobi he could be, after all. He went ahead without saying anything to the receptionist as usual and knocked on the door. Once prompted to do so by the aged Kage, he entered. Seeing Hiruzen nod let the blonde know he was able to speak freely.

"Good morning, Hiruzen-sama." Naruto said, prompting the addressed old man to chuckle "You sent for me, right?"

"Indeed, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen answered "Me and your sensei were discussing your progress so far and I became aware of something that honestly slipped my mind, something that might just make you be one of the strongest Genin ever in this village. It will come down to your effort still, as well as how you use it, but needless to say, you will become a potential target. Make sure not to show too much as well."

Naruto nodded, frowning; he had rarely seen Hiruzen this serious, which meant this was not the time to crack a joke or make light of it.

"There's a branch Technique to the Kage Bunshin that can be used for information gathering." Hiruzen explained "That branch was created by the Nidaime, soon after he created the Technique itself and its explosive variant. This variant in particular has the particularity of borrowing the idea from the Yamanaka Clan's Hijutsu. This variant will make the experiences of the clone transfer to you once they dispel."

Naruto widened his eyes at the implication; he would be able to train most of the things he needed to work on via that Technique and dedicate himself to physical training then. Hiruzen chuckled once he realized the blonde had understood the implications.

"I should not be doing this for obvious reasons, moreso when you already know you will be participating I the Chunin Exams, but that does not matter." Hiruzen said "You, however, revealed a dedication Kurenai found to be the source of a lot of potential. Make sure you do not overuse the Technique I am giving you, mind you. It will tire you mentally and healing from that tends to be harder than dealing with physical fatigue."

"Understood, Hiruzen-sama." Naruto said, still trying to come to terms with the sheer amount of potential uses this Technique had "Why doesn't anyone else use it? Why don't you use it for the paperwork?"

Hiruzen chuckled, soon beginning to laugh out loud; the question had a naivete of sorts to it, although it did seem logical.

"Because, Naruto-kun, not everyone can create nearly as many Clones as you can, for one... two, this branch is more demanding than the regular Technique and more Chakra will go to waste whenever you use it, so do think twice before using it during a mission or a hostile situation." Hiruzen absently began filling his pipe with tobacco "You will probably outshine the other members of Team 8, but you will need to be at your best once the Exams come. With this Technique, you may just become the strongest Shinobi we have ever had since the Shodaime."

Naruto froze at that; he was sure Hiruzen was exaggerating... wasn't he? He was aware that he could toss around Shadow Clones with uncanny ease, but only now was he beginning to take other things into consideration... he did not take as long as other people did to heal; he had massive Chakra reserves, as evidenced by the amazement he had seen on his teammates' face when he had attempted the surface clinging exercise for five hours straight and was ready to keep going regardless of excessive the amount of Chakra he had expelled and still had on him on such occasion.

"I am a Jinchuriki..." Naruto mused out loud "Maybe I can bring it to new heights. I intend to be the strongest I can be and to protect the village. Whatever reason the Yondaime had to make me a Jinchuriki made me the best candidate to protect the village."

Hiruzen just froze, his right index finger having a flame on it, as he was about to light his pipe; Naruto, having no idea his words had struck deep, kept talking.

"... I have a question, Hiruzen-sama." he said, prompting the aged Kage to light his pipe and to inhale the aromatic smoke "Why do this year's rookies need to be ready for the Chunin Exams so soon? I thought it was uncommon for people to be nominated so soon, so planning to have three rookie teams ready to compete after five months is a bit weird."

Hiruzen chuckled; people clearly didn't give the blonde a lot of credit. He was sure Kurenai had raised several possibilities regardless of the fact that she was aware of the reasons why they needed to be ready. Regardless, he would humor the blonde. He owed him that and much more, after all.

"Well, we had three major crises in recent years, my boy." Hiruzen said easily "While we remain strong and retained most of our clients, a considerable amount of them took their business elsewhere. As things stand, many do not consider Kirigakure nor Sunagakure major powers due to their state of affairs. Kirigakure is currently being torn by a civil war unlike any the world has ever seen while Sunagakure has been in decline in recent years. We need to offer a show of force to show we remain strong regardless of the Kyuubi Attack, the Hyuga Debacle and the Uchiha Massacre."

"But I thought we remained the strong even after those." Naruto said, tilting his head slightly to the side, prompting Hiruzen to chuckle again.

"We didn't." he said "We still aren't. It took a considerable effort from specialized Shinobi, bribery, extortion, planting spies on key places and maintaining a tough front to get the job done. We have managed to partially recover fro those losses and we intend to show them that our future generation will not be one to be trifled with. We have clan heirs from most of the clans in this year's graduating batch too, which means that they will get the message. We need to remain strong in these times of instability."

Naruto nodded, looking like he regretted having asked Hiruzen about the situation at hand; he was feeling the pressure now. But at least he now knew he had everything to make things happen and to keep his team safe. Maybe he could even teach them some of the things he managed to learn and perfect from this Kage Bunshin variant. He snapped to attention as Hiruzen tossed a scroll towards him, which he was barely able to catch.

"Do not regret having asked it, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said, his voice firm "You were bound to have been told the truth anyways, one month before the Exams. This way you have time to create a routine and cope with it. I am aware that your teammates are better at controlling their emotions than you are and won't be feeling the same distress you would have felt in their situation. With that said, you should have this Technique down by tomorrow, if the ability that you revealed by learning the original Technique holds true."

"I guess..." Naruto said "What do you suggest me to learn, Hiruzen-giji?"

The smile that suddenly illuminated the aged face of the Hokage made him appear almost twenty years younger; Naruto, having realized what he had called the aged Kage, opened his mouth to apologize but Hiruzen waved it away and shrugged, letting the blonde know he was okay with it. The blonde gaped a few times and finally closed his mouth, nodding.

"You better get to it, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said, still smiling "Drop by more often, would you? Being Hokage, gratifying as it is, is dull. Maybe you can tell me about your training or your day while at it."

"Sure thing, giji." Naruto said, offering a smile of his own; the way Hiruzen looked was different from what he ever remembered seeing from him, lighter, like he had been when he had asked Naruto to be more familiar with him, only magnified by a considerable margin "I will drop around lunch time once in a while, okay?"

Hiruzen nodded and shooed him, smiling; he could tell the old man was happy with the current development, which surprised him. Why would the Hokage, of all people, prize his relationship with him, of all people? Was it because he would be powerful? Because he was the Jinchuriki? No... if that was the case, he would have either been kept weak or he'd have been trained by the Hokage or someone else from the get go... right? Bah... he was reading too much into it; he had been hanging around Shino and Hinata for too long.

**Next morning, 04:45 am**

When Hinata and Shino arrived to their usual meeting spot with Naruto, the blonde was doing push-up instead of sparring with his Clones as was the norm, which gave them some pause. They were used to Naruto following routines and asking them or Kurenai-sensei about changes to said routine, so they immediately found it abnormal. Regardless, they knew Naruto could read them more than he let on so he would explain it to them... eventually.

"Morning, Shino, Hinata." Naruto greeted, jumping to his feet "Changed routine for a reason I will explain in the meeting with Kurenai-sensei. What do you want to do today?"

Shino and Hinata glanced at one another and eventually gave up; they were not nearly as stubborn as Naruto was and they knew they were here because they wanted to keep up, not the other way around. The grades their teammate had had, while inferior to theirs, showed nothing out here, something they had take a while to realize. Naruto was bound to be their strongest and to keep on distancing himself from them in the power scale of things unless they made an effort and they knew it. Whether or not Naruto saw things like that, they did not know.

"Spars." Shino said "We need to actually practice with each other in order to spot and correct flaws on each other's styles. I would appreciate it if you did not close our tekentsu this time around, Hinata-san."

"No promises." Hinata said evenly "Our opponents will not hold back at the exam."

"A valid point." Shino said "Very well. Do as you will. Try not to make it long lasting, however, for obvious reasons. We need to make good use of our time."

And so, they sparred; Naruto managed to surprise them yet again with his improvised moves and surprisingly quick thinking; he seemed to use the terrain per se around as a means to an end and used his Clones not to attack, but for support, such as platforms from whence he could rebound, for a boost... he was not s fast as Hinata and Shino were, though, something they immediately told him to work on.

Hinata remained their best Taijutsu practitioner, of course; whereas Naruto thrive on his unpredictability and surprisingly strong bows, Hinata capitalized on dodging and countering. What she lacked I strength, she made up with her knowledge of pressure points. She was not using the Juken, as to avoid disabling her teammates.

Shino was the most surprising of them all for the simple fact that he was an Aburame, a Clan known for focusing exclusively on their own Clan Techniques; he had managed to catch up to them in the basic Academy style (it was REALLY basic, mind you, but he had done so in less than a month) and to use it as a base for the style Kurenai had trained him on. She was no expert herself but she was not as one dimensional as many perceived her to be; no Jonin was... unless you were Maito Gai, of course. But that was an entirely different case. Needless to say, Shino tended to use his superior reach to strike his opponent and his lean build to dodge and slip away. He also tended to parry blows when he ascertained he would be unable to dodge. He somehow managed to remain cool, calm and collected even in the heat of a spar, something his other teammates were unable to do, moreso when they faced one another.

Once each one of them had fought the other two, Hinata and Shino began stretching and cool down exercises while Naruto resumed his workout regime. They were still amazed at just how much he could go on, apparently. While the calmer members of Team 8 watched their blonde teammate train, they exchanged impressions about the state of affairs in their training; they had been told they were fine and that Naruto was at their level but they were unable to believe it simply due to how hard he trained all the time, seemingly effortlessly. There was something they both disliked feeling and that was inadequacy. They could tell their blonde teammate was far more than they had initially thought and that did not sit well with them simply due to the fact that they were supposed to be a team. Yet they knew the blonde kept on training solo instead of asking for their sensei to teach him more, which would have sill been acceptable due to the fact that Naruto lacked a family to given him pointers regarding his training and to teach him more about the Shinobi Arts. Yet he did not, regardless of Kurenai blatantly stating he was free to do so whenever. Why did they always feel like they would never be able to compete with the blonde regardless of the many times they had been victorious in spars against the blonde?

Once they all stopped to gather their wits, two hours and a half later, it was almost time for the mission briefing. Hinata left to quickly freshen up some and to be somewhat presentable, Shino muttering something or another about needing to clear his mind. Naruto shrugged and kept going; he still had a lot to burn. Maybe he SHOULD get some food though... he still had fifteen minutes or so and old man Ichiraku was about done setting shop... he hoped. With that in mind, the blonde headed off, grabbing his jacket, the same type as before, and left. There was a warm bowl of ramen with his name on it...

**08:02 am, training ground 34**

When Naruto arrived, everyone was already present; the meal had been a quick affair, although he had needed to wait for them to finish with opening properly and to actually prepare the mean itself, a bowl of steaming miso ramen. He looked like he had just woken up and his cheerful demeanor was palpable.

"Sorry I'm late, Kurenai-sensei." he said, bowing "I had to get something to eat."

"It's quite alright, as long as you do not make a habit out of it." she said "I was about to ask your teammates about today's meeting. I want them to speak up about it without you offering any input, okay? There is something that needs to be addressed here."

Naruto nodded and sat down, cross-legged; he closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply as Iruka and Kurenai-sensei had taught him and began molding Chakra. AS he did so, he heard both his teammates voice their concerns over the fact that they were afraid of being left behind by Naruto at some point, since he was apparently growing very fast. That made Naruto stop in his tracks, which in turn disrupted his concentration and made him expel a sizable amount of Chakra. That made their teammates just stop explaining and sag their shoulders, as if a point had been proven.

"I never thought this would be an issue." Kurenai admitted "I was under the impression this would have been a balanced team, not one in which a member would be held aside by the others simply because they were growing at a fast pace."

Hinata was about to protest but Kurenai raised her hand to stop her from interrupting; this was something all of them, not just Shino and Hinata, needed to hear.

"I will be blunt. If it wasn't for the Bunshin no Jutsu being part of the obligatory graduating Techniques, Naruto would have probably graduated a while ago." Kurenai said "He would have done that sooner than many of you think if he had been in a Shinobi family. His large Chakra pool was not taken into account, however, and the proper exercises to hone his control were not shown. Aside from that, he would have graduated sooner if he had been raised by Shinobi. You two could have done so as well. You were more than capable enough of having done it before last year, Shino. You, Hinata... last year. Naruto is not growing as fast as you perceive. He has always been stronger than you thought, stronger than most of us thought. He mastered a B Rank Kinjutsu n the span of a few hours. Let that sink in; you are clearly letting his fame as a bellow average and then as an average student cloud your minds and that has to stop. Besides, you just told me you had managed to defeat him recently. That means you are improving as well."

"It is not the present that makes me shudder, Kurenai-sensei, but the future." Shino droned "Irrational as it may sound, Naruto-san happens to be his own team. He can run missions solo as it is, he is more capable than me and Hinata-san are and I am quite sure he could defeat us both at the same time if he truly wished to do so. But the issue here is what you, Kurenai-sensei, misunderstood. I am not unhappy with the fact that he is too strong, as he is in my team as well. The main issue is that we are trying to catch up to be more around his level and are failing to do so. What we want to request is actual suggestions so we can improve and be able to keep up with him as much as possible."

That made Kurenai pause; she had underestimated two of her students, it would seem. Then again she had expected to train people fresh out of the Academy, not people like Shino and even Hinata. She nodded, her expression betraying nothing as sh e eyed both of them while Naruto was in the background, molding Chakra once more, clearly uncomfortable with the praise he had received. Regardless, the blonde soon managed to focus and sat unnaturally still (for him, anyways), attempting to mold Chakra, clearly trying to pretend he was not there. His embarrassment was to be expected; he had gone from being somewhat invisible to having his capabilities recognized by two people he still considered better than him. He was not as confident as he had once been, for obvious reasons. Had he remained overconfident, he would have never changed and never committed himself with such intensity.

"... I apologize." Kurenai said "I misinterpreted the reason why you were having this conversation with me. I suppose I can begin joining you in the morning as well to begin giving pointers and to see what is what regarding your skills. We will also be discussing plans and contingencies at some point after I am sure about your skill levels in their entirety. We will also run scenarios with the help of Naruto, mock missions if you will. I was not aware your dive to improve was this large. Needless to say, I will make use of it while it lasts. You wanted to do this, so you are past the point of no return. No mission today. We will use our time to come up with a new schedule and to discuss the more urgent issues that need to be tackled."

Her team nodded; this had to be the most serious they saw their sensei at yet; maybe they should have addressed it earlier instead of letting it fester for nearly two months. Nearly half of the time for the Chunin Exams had elapsed as it was, so it was probable they would all need to put in more effort than the norm now. Regardless, they were on the right path, so they would move forward. There was an international even with their names on it.

**Hiruzen's Office**

"I have to admit this plan of yours is already bearing fruit. To think we are barely at half of deadline has elapsed and they are already showing such improvements is astonishing. Even Haruno has had surprising results." Hiruzen said, eyeing his old teammate, who was seated across him, appraisingly "I do not condone your methods, but I have to admit you exceeded yourself this time. This managed to strike a balance between your modus operandi and mine."

"Hrm." the man seated across the Sandaime grunted, taking a sip from the tea placed in front of him "The fact that you're willing to see that makes me wonder if we shouldn't have tried to do this sooner. Regardless, you know fully well this is to remain the norm for years to come. The old system was a waste because only three teams made it, four in case they were all of exceptional caliber and no more, and some teams dropped out of the program after making Genin or never got too far. From what my... inquiries... to some of said people revealed, the dissatisfaction stemmed from not learning at a pace the Genin deemed adequate, enough, missions gone south due to not being properly prepared, trauma, losing faith in the program... the list goes on. Last year's batch all gave up except Team Gai. Then we have teams like Team Yakushi, which has no Jonin sensei due to the age group of the team per se. There are several other teams in the same predicament. They were simply not fast enough. This generation, however, will be the turning point. They will be teaching teams the same way they were taught if they become Jonin senseis. This will make the future generations capable of securing Konoha's position at the top of the world.."

"In theory, yes." Hiruzen said "Regardless, caution is of essence... otherwise we will get more people like Orochimaru. Powerful as he was, he was weak of mind and went down the wrong path. I can only imagine what would have happened if he had stayed... they could have helped us a lot by having stayed behind, Tsunade and Orochimaru. But the past is the past and we have to focus on the future. We will not be around for much longer in the grander scheme of things and we need to lay the foundation for it and to pave the way, least we have it all succumb. You of all people, know that, Danzo."

"Are you certain the Uzumaki's supposed wish to protect the village will hold true after you are gone?" Danzo asked, finishing his tea and placing the cup down "I read the report you wrote, including the little trick you taught him. Are you sure that is wise? Iwa and Kumo will be here for the exams. They will not need much to figure him out, especially if A brings his usual entourage. Oonoki will definitely see it right away, with the exception of his status as a Jinchuriki. I give him three seconds until he does."

"Yes. All the more reason to make him as strong as possible." Hiruzen said "They will figure it out anyways, that being the reason why I wish for him to be too strong for them to feasibly make a move. Foul play in the Chunin Exams is to be expected, after all. He would not stand a chance against any attempts at assassinating or capturing him. But if he can stall them and make a ruckus, they will be caught red-handed and cause an international incident. I am sure sure Kumo is not ready for another one, much less with Konoha; they would lose quite a few clients and any treaties they eventually signed would be met with distrust and skepticism. No. Iwa is the main issue here. If they make a move they will be at our mercy."

"A bold move." Danzo congratulated "One they will realize soon after thinking it through, meaning they will be unable to do anything to him... unless there are circumstances we are not taking into consideration. But that is always a certainty. As the date approaches, we should meet with more frequency. We will need to establish extra defense measures, so I am willing to lend you some of my men. With that said, I hope you have a nice day."

"You as well, Danzo." Hiruzen said, a slight frown at the reminder of Danzo's Ne division "Do tell if anything comes up. It has been too quiet as of late and Jiraiya has gone silent. Again."

Danzo nodded and left; there was not much else to be said between the old teammates other than straight to business; they were aware that heir differences, both in personality, ideologies and philosophies was too great to work around. Whereas Hiruzen was often deemed to be the heir of Hashirama; Danzo, of Tobirama. The two brothers had been quite different from one another but had worked flawlessly together; the same could be said about their 'heirs', if one could call Hiruzen and Danzo so. Both old men were aware of this, just as they were aware that they would need one another if the village was to survive the next generations. Change was in the air and they would need to ensure there would be capable people to whom they could pass the torch to. Ne, as bad as it was, had a reason to be and was a necessary evil in Hiruzen's book, so he tolerated them regardless of deeming the methods used by Danzo far too inhumane. He would need the extra manpower soon, he could tell. Things had been still for too long in the grander scheme of things... and one did not live through the wars and crises he had without developing a sense of sorts to detect whenever similar situations were brewing. It was merely a waiting game now.

**Next morning**

**Mission lobby, 07:30 am**

Yesterday had been a profitable day for Team 8 regardless of the lack of training and mission; they had, together with Kurenai-sensei, ascertained their main flaw at the moment was the lack of experience. They had a leader (aside from Kurenai-sensei, of course), preset plans to tackle several situations and a few altered contingencies but no true application of them unless one counted hordes of Naruto Clones. Unbeknownst to the other team members, the Clones now passed on their experience to the original, meaning Naruto would begin getting a LOT of combat experience soon enough, as well as to improve his Chakra control, little by little. He had already used them to begin memorizing some Taijutsu drills he had 'procured' from the library He would make all his important people proud... and, he supposed, show the village and his ex-classmates just exactly what he was. The village resented him for holding a monster? He would show them a real monster, in the Shinobi sense of the word.

He eyed his teammates, trying to ascertain what they were thinking; better as he was at reading them, he was simply not naturally inclined to do so and they were far from being open books. Regardless, he could say he had gotten closer to them than he had ever deemed possible to do with them. He had given up on getting close to more people after a while. His routine, his training, his goal of being Hokage... that had been his sole focus and it had nearly consumed him, moreso after the beginning of Team 8. Yet, once they joined Naruto every morning, things had begun to slowly change until they were among the few people he would lay down his life to protect. He was not even sure they were aware of such fact nor if they would do the same, but he did not care. He would be there for them should the need arise.

"Good morning, Iruka-san." Kurenai greeted, snapping Naruto out of his reverie "I m here with my team to ask for a C Rank."

"I would normally tell you you were out of your mind..." Iruka said in a d defeated tone "... but apparently this year's rookies are not the same as last year's batch."

"I am quite sure you are aware Naruto was able to defeat a Chunin on the day he graduated." Kurenai said evenly "I am inclined to believe my other two Genin would have been able to do the same as well. Near two months have passed now, Iruka-san. Where do you think that places them now? Granted, Mizuki was taken by surprise... but that is still a valid victory. We will take a regular escort mission. That is bound to teach them the basics they will be needing for the future."

Shino and Hinata blatantly stared their blonde teammate; Naruto slumped his shoulders slightly and muttered something under her breath while his teammate just stared in disbelief. He was trying to convince them he was at their level, not to try to aggravate them further and to drive a wedge between himself and them. Maybe he would get to talk with them later on, somehow, someway; he could only hope he didn't shove his foot in his mouth. Maybe the following mission would give them time to sort it all out; he was not trying to outdo them. He simply wanted to be as strong as possible, for them, for Hiruzen-giji, for Teuchi-ojisan and Ayame-chan. They would probably see it as him deeming them weak, regardless; he knew how their minds worked.

"An escort mission... yes. We do have one we received yesterday; the risk level was evaluated and considered to be minimum." Iruka said, handing the scroll over to Kurenai for her to read "Should you accept it, your team will be escorting a team to Ta no Kuni. It should take you at least two weeks."

Kurenai nodded, prompting Iruka to produce four forms that he handed over to her. With that out of the way, he politely wished them a good day and they moved along. The path towards the training field was tense, silent. Shino and Hinata denoted most of the tension, of course; they were beginning to lose their patience with their overachieving blonde teammate. They felt like they were being made fools of. Once they arrived, Kurenai impatiently motioned them to sit down.

"I will not hear another word over the current predicament." Kurenai warned "I will give you one hour to settle your differences. No more, no less. That, by the way, includes packing for twenty days. You are about to begin your hardest mission yet and there is no room for petty squabbles nor jealousy. Get to it now. Report to the Gate once you are prepared."

The startled Genin were left in Kurenai's wake; they had never seen Kurenai so furious. They had felt just the barest hints of killing intent, too. Needless to say, they were frightened, even the normally stoic Shino and Hinata.

"Look, I want to be strong." Naruto said after steeling himself "I am not bound by any Clan like you are and that gives me far more time to train... but I do not have any support from anyone either. You both have your obligations and secret Techniques. I have to make up for it by training my ass off. Sorry if you feel like I'm trying to appear stronger than you. Sorry that I have to try harder to actually get somewhere. We'll sort the issue of disbanding the team and getting you a replacement once the mission is over. I'd prefer not to have any failed mission in my record."

"You still misunderstand the reason of our aggravation." Shino said "We are aggravated over the lack of communication. You keep on downplaying your skills over and over. That cannot happen nor will it happen again in the future, because your skill level is just as vital to the performance of the team as ours is."

"Downplaying your skills means we might need to rework our contingency plans and adjust them. You apparently have more than mere numbers on your side and that alone is already frightening." Hinata said "That brings a very important question me and Shino have yet to ask... what are your limits with the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? How many Clones can you do? Think of these questions for when we're on the road. For now, we need to pack. And do think about what we said. We will speak about it once we are on our way back to the village. For now, as you said, I'd rather not fail this mission."

Naruto just watched his teammates leave, frowning; he was not as god at reading them as he had thought he was. Regardless, they did have a point. It was not that he mislead them on purpose, but prattling on over his skills made him feel like his old self, the one he had deemed to be inadequate of he were to pursue his old goal of becoming Hokage. He still deemed it inadequate for his goal of being the strongest he could be. Sighing, he shook his head, his mind drifting towards the five Clones he had reading at home. Shit. There would be a lot to talk about once they were on the way back. Maybe he should leave a few freshly made clones to do some reading behind... or do some throughout the mission. He could use them for Chakra-related training, which was a huge relief. He would be mastering that ten times cursed Surface Clinging Exercise in no time at all... he hoped. Seeing that time was his main concern, he made a Clone and gave it some real cash and ordered it to fetch clothes. He doubted the ones he had would last him two weeks out there, since they could need to actually fight and removing his jacket was not always an option. He also needed ration bars and a set of Kunai and Shuriken and tripwire. Explosive tags he had plenty, as he rarely used those unless he was experimenting with Kage Bunshin and traps. Muttering to himself, the blonde headed towards his place; he probably had around forty minutes after discussing things (kind of...) with his teammates, mulling over their answer and thinking about what he would need.

**End of Chapter IV**

And another Chapter done... hopefully more readable than all others. I hope you are enjoying the story so far and that the lack of actions is too overwhelmingly tedious. There's a reason to every single thing that happens in this story, as one might expect. It also introduced Danzo far earlier, for obvious reasons. I always wondered what the relationship between Danzo and Hiruzen would have been. AS this chapter states, I find them to be heirs of sorts to the ideologies the first two Hokages represented. Hashirama was honest, open and believed in the Will of Fire; Tobirama was more ruthless, efficient and strategic. While both (Hiruzen and Danzo) would have probably been at odds with one another, I can see it as having been a unique relationship akin to that of canon Naruto and Sasuke, a not-so-friendship, more akin to a rivalry than anything. I also deemed it feasible for someone like Danzo to help fortify Konoha for an international events wherein the other two main players of the international scene, Iwa and Kumo, would e present. One thing I came to think about Kishimoto was that he did not plan Naruto to be as complex as it eventually became in the first two arcs of the story. That will not be the case here for obvious reasons.

Unless I botch the formatting again, you should not expect to see anything in less than at least two weeks; I can tell you that the next chapter will have action in it. I am not experienced with it as things stand so I know not how it will come out. With that said, I bid you farewell and wish you a good one. Also, stay healthy. Bleh.


End file.
